Swiss Army Exercises - Invaded by France?

Look, every exercise needs a premise, and when you have no real enemies, sometimes you just make up weird stuff and go with it.

A bankrupt France tears itself apart into several regions, and one of them marches over the border to Switzerland to get back its stolen money. The Swiss army has this imaginary scenario covered, according to military simulations revealed over the weekend.

Switzerland's army simulated a French attack against their country in training exercises in August, the newspaper Matin Dimanche revealed on Sunday.

The army imagined a scenario in which France was in financial turmoil and had split up into several regional entities.

One of these, "Saônia," was preparing attacks on Switzerland to retrieve money it had apparently stolen from it.

By: Brant

USAction! Take Charge!

U.S. Marine Lance Cpl. Nicholas Moore shouts orders to his team during during Khaan Quest 2013 at Five Hills Training Area in Mongolia, Aug. 08, 2013. U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Robert Bush

By: Brant

Conveniently-Scheduled Joint US-SA Exercises?

Do you think the joint exercises in South Africa right now were timed at all to coincide with Zimbabwe's elections? Maybe having a broad spectrum of US capabilities a 2-hour flight away has helped keep possible violence in check in Mugabeland?

Approximately 700 U.S. and 3,000 South African Defense Force service members gathered [in Port Elizabeth, Republic of South Africa] for the opening ceremony of Exercise Shared Accord 13, July 24. This is the second exercise of its type between these two countries and is the result of bilateral discussions that originated in 2009, and were approved in 2010. "This particular exercise is aimed at specifically providing collective training for the United States and the South African National Defense Force while building interoperability and mutual understanding between the two armed forces," said South African Maj. Gen. Ephraim Phako, deputy chief of Joint Operations.

So what exactly did we deploy out there?

Soldiers from 1st Battalion, 18th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, will be making-up the bulk of U.S. forces involved in the exercise. They will be joined by service members with 82nd Airborne Division, 10th Special Forces Group, 2nd Marine Division, 4th Marine Division, District of Columbia Army National Guard, Rhode Island Air National Guard, New York Army National Guard, 3rd Infantry Division, 1st Medical Command and 1172nd Movement Control Team.

Let's face it, the outcome of the 'election' was never in doubt, but the potential violence surrounding it always could've been worse. After all, last time there was an "election" the Mugabians weren't so thrilled about it.

Mr Mugabe was quoted by the Herald newspaper as saying the veterans had asked approval to take up arms but he had dissuaded them. They said Zimbabwe was won 'by the barrel of the gun' and should not be surrendered by a vote, he said.

View Larger Map By: Brant

Maneuvers in the Persian Gulf and Unspoken Threats?

Maneuvers in the Persian Gulf, aimed at Iran, of course, but trying to influence their elections?

Massive US-led military drills began in the Persian Gulf in a second such show of maritime might in under a year. The US says the exercises are not aimed at Iran, who earlier vowed to close the Hormuz Strait, and now expresses concern over the drills.

The US Navy has issued a statement that the mass exercises are aimed at “enhancing capability to preserve freedom of navigation in international waterways.” The drills will reportedly focus on mine-sweeping and search-and-seizure operations, and some on-shore training.

The Pentagon is directing the maneuvers, which will reportedly involve 35 ships, 18 unmanned submarines and unmanned aircraft. The 40 other countries participating in the drills have not yet been named; Britain, France, some Middle Eastern states, and nations as distant as New Zealand have previously participated in similar exercises.

The Obama administration has stated that the maneuvers are not a warning to Iran, and are intended solely to secure a key oil route in the region.

Tehran has said it will be monitoring the exercises, and voiced concerns about how the maneuvers come in the run-up to the Iranian elections.

Iran has previously threatened to close the Hormuz Strait, through which 40 percent of the world’s oil is transported by ship, if "its interests are in serious trouble". The US condemned the threats and warned that such a move would provoke US Military action.

By: Brant

A Walking Wargame Analysis of the World

Up in the DC area, there's a giant walkable map of the world that General Dempsey uses with other staffers to work out visualizations of real-world challenges facing the military.

“Strategic seminar” is the name Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has chosen for these daylong sessions, which were not exactly a war game more than a tabletop military exercise, and unlike anything the Pentagon has done to plan its future.

Shortly after being sworn in as chairman last October, a decade after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, General Dempsey said the military was confronting “a strategic inflection point, where the institution fundamentally re-examines itself.” The seminar project he started fits his goal: to try to build the right military force for five years from now — and not be driven by the budget cycle into a series of year-by-year decisions.

The overarching question is whether the Pentagon’s war plans need to be rewritten to take into account how the military has been affected by a decade of fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, and now by orders to shrink to fit mandated budget cuts. While the list of potential adversaries and the rising threats remain classified, the assessments from the sessions already are reshaping military planning. Initial findings have been presented to President Obama by General Dempsey, officials said.

One realization is that under any situation in which the United States is in an armed conflict within five years, American territory most likely would be attacked as part of an adversary’s actions, regardless of where the major fighting was focused overseas. That attack might be direct, by missile, or more asymmetrical, as in terrorism or via a computer-network cyberattack.

“In the future, our homeland will not be the sanctuary it has been,” General Dempsey told a recent military conference, during which he pulled back the curtain — a bit — on the strategic seminar project.

As a result of that seminar, General Dempsey said, the military’s Northern Command, responsible for defending United States territory, has begun work with the Department of Homeland Security, the F.B.I. and other domestic agencies to assess how potential demands for military forces overseas might affect security at home, and how any shortfalls could be resolved.

Another lesson from the seminars is that the Pentagon might have to organize and deploy forces in a different way than war plans now dictate if there is another major conflict overseas and simultaneously a significant attack at home, or the need to manage a catastrophic, domestic natural disaster.

“We assumed a conflict someplace, and we flowed the forces required to that conflict,” General Dempsey said.

By: Brant

NORAD Exercise Planned for National Capital Region

The DOD has announce that NORAD has an exercise planned for the "National Capital Region".

The North American Aerospace Defense Command and its geographical component, the Continental United States NORAD Region, will conduct exercise Falcon Virgo 12-12 beginning tonight, in the National Capital Region (NCR), Washington, D.C. The exercise will conclude early Friday morning, Sept. 7.

Flights in the NCR are scheduled to take place during two different time periods each day: 11:30 p.m. to 1:30 a.m. EDT and 3:30 to 5:30 a.m. EDT.

The exercise is comprised of a series of training flights held in coordination with the Federal Aviation Administration, the NCR Coordination Center, the Joint Air Defense Operations Center, Civil Air Patrol, U.S. Coast Guard and CONR’s Eastern and Western Air Defense Sectors.

Exercise Falcon Virgo is designed to hone NORAD’s intercept and identification operations as well as operationally test the NCR Visual Warning System and certify newly assigned Command and Control personnel at the JADOC. Civil Air Patrol aircraft and a U.S. Coast Guard HH-65 Dolphin helicopter will participate in the exercise.

By: Brant

India-China Military Exercises?

India and China may be restarting joint military exercises.

Joint military exercises between India and China will be resumed after a four-year gap, Indian Defence Minister A.K. Antony announced Tuesday after talks in New Delhi with his Beijing counterpart.
The two emerging Asian nations have had an often fractious relationship over their shared border, and they halted joint military exercises after 2008 due to a series of diplomatic spats including over visa issues.
"We have decided that (to restart military exercises)," Antony told reporters following talks with General Liang Guanglie, the first Chinese defence minister to visit Delhi in eight years.
"We covered a lot about the situation in the South Asia, Asia-Pacific region," Antony said. "We had a very frank and heart-to-heart discussion on all the issues... including in the border areas."
The disputed border between India and China has been the subject of 14 rounds of fruitless talks since 1962, when the two nations fought a brief, bloody war over the northeastern Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh.

By: Brant

NORAD Exercise Planned for the National Capital Region

From the DoD newswire,there's a NORAD exercise being planned for the National Capital Region. Want to bet there's a bunch of panicked 911 calls about the goings-on?

The North American Aerospace Defense Command and its geographical component, the Continental United States NORAD Region (CONR), will conduct exercise Falcon Virgo 12-11 between 11:30 p.m. (EDT) tonight and 5:30 a.m. (EDT) tomorrow, in the National Capital Region (NCR), Washington, D.C.

The exercise is comprised of a series of training flights held in coordination with the Federal Aviation Administration, the NCR Coordination Center, the Joint Air Defense Operations Center (JADOC), Civil Air Patrol, U.S. Coast Guard and CONR’s Eastern Air Defense Sector.

Exercise Falcon Virgo is designed to hone NORAD’s intercept and identification operations as well as operationally test the NCR Visual Warning System and certify newly assigned command and control personnel at JADOC. Civil Air Patrol aircraft and a U.S. Coast Guard HH-65 Dolphin helicopter will participate in the exercise.

These exercises are carefully planned and closely controlled to ensure CONR’s rapid response capability. NORAD has conducted exercise flights of this nature throughout the United States and Canada since the start of Operation Noble Eagle, the command’s response to the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.

By: Brant

Lemme get this straight... you're complaining?!

Is it petulance? If so, there are worse places to be exiled than a dock at Waikiki Beach.

In a gesture of friendship and goodwill toward an obscure former ally, warships from New Zealand have been granted special, private berthing privileges for a major naval exercise now underway in Hawaii. And wouldn’t you know it: they’re complaining. It seems that while ships from a dozen friendly countries are berthed at crowded, attack-prone Pearl Harbor, two New Zealand warships have been assigned exclusive berthing spots at Honolulu’s lovely civilian harbor, several miles away. All by themselves.

This is the first time that New Zealand forces have been invited to take part in the biennial RIMPAC exercises since New Zealand banned U.S. Navy ships from making port calls there in the 1980s. U.S. warships are still not welcome. Sensitive Kiwis detect a deliberate snub in the separate berthing arrangements in Hawaii.

“Petty, petulant and pathetic,” says the New Zealand Herald. “What other conclusion is it possible to draw from the absurd, vindictive and ultimately short-sighted refusal by the United States to allow two New Zealand naval vessels to berth at the Pearl Harbor military base?”

A quarter of poll respondents said New Zealand should pull out of the exercise because of the “petty snub.”

Well, sure, but it could be worse. The Kiwis’ temporary home is at the foot of historic Aloha Tower, a short walk from shopping, restaurants, bars and the kind of nighttime, personal-service entertainment long favored by seagoing personnel. The beaches and discos of Waikiki are a quick bus ride away.

By: Brant

"Low Overhead" Sims for Army Training?

It's nice that FOGN Michael Peck thinks that the Army is migrating toward lower-cost alternatives, but the truth is that it'll never happen. The Army will insist on ever-more-complex tools, which require more back-end contractors to run them. However, when the expense gets out of hand, rather than find lower-cost options to run the same number of exercises, they'll instead run fewer at the same highly-inflated cost. They did this for years w/ NTC, choosing to cancel rotations rather than scale back what happened on them.

ALOTT is designed to be used by non-geeks. But computer experts will still be needed to run the large-scale simulations at the regional simulation centers, and there will still be a need for “pucksters” to control computer-generated forces because the simulation’s artificial intelligence isn’t smart enough to send a column of tanks across a bridge without a traffic jam.

“No sim provider wants to stand in front of a commanding general and say, ‘Sir, your attack failed because automated unit X decided to turn left rather than right,’’’ Black said.

This statement from Black really pisses me off. The truth is that shit-fits-the-fan like that ALL. THE. TIME. Hmmmm... anyone heard of the 507th Maintenance Company? A scenario like that never happens in a JANUS exercise, but it happens every single time we go to war. We know it's going to happen in theater, so why not prepare for it at home-station training?

You know why: No commander wants to admit that his unit is the one dumb enough to do it.

By: Brant

US/SK to Norks: Back off!

How do you piss off the Norks? Plant their flag in the impact area of a live-fire exercise.

A huge North Korean flag disappeared behind a tower of flames and thick black smoke Friday as South Korean fighter jets and U.S. attack helicopters fired rockets in the allies' biggest joint live-fire drills since the Korean War.
The war games south of the heavily armed Korean border come amid rising animosity between the rival Koreas and are meant to mark Monday's 62nd anniversary of the start of the 1950-53 war, which ended in a truce, leaving the Korean Peninsula still technically at war.
Live-fire drills by the allies are fairly routine, but using the North's national flag as part of target practice is unusual -- and will be seen as a provocation by Pyongyang, which has previously threatened war for what it called South Korean insults to the country's national symbols and leadership.

It's not quite the Most Dangerous Range Ever, but that one didn't start a war.

By: Brant

US-JPN-SKOR Naval Exercises Announced

Defense.gov News Release: United States, Republic of Korea and Japanese Naval Exercises Announced

The United States, the Republic of Korea and Japan will conduct a two-day, trilateral naval exercise June 21 - 22 in the waters south of the Korean peninsula.

The exercise will focus on improving interoperability and communications with the ROK Navy and the Japan Maritime Self Defense Force, which can facilitate cooperative disaster relief and maritime security activities in the future. The three navies will conduct this exercise beyond the territorial waters of any coastal nation.

The United States will then conduct a routine carrier operation with the ROK Navy in the Yellow Sea immediately after the trilateral exercise June 23 - 25.

The George Washington Carrier Strike Group will make a port call in Busan, South Korea, after completing the two exercises.

Note that there's no mention of either China or the Norks.

By: Brant

Red Dawn? Or Training Exercise?

Russian troops parachuting into Colorado?!

For the first time in history, Russian and American airborne forces will hold joint drills in the US. The anti-terror exercises scheduled for May 2012 will get off to a flying start with a tactical landing operation and “terrorist” camp raid.
“This is the first time such an event is being held,” Russian Airborne Forces spokesperson Col. Aleksandr Kucherenko stressed, announcing the plan. “The Russian airborne will contribute a special task group that will exercise with US special service weapons.”
The drills were arranged by the Russian Airborne Command and a US military delegation in Moscow last December.
Russian soldiers will receive preparatory training in Colorado’s Fort Carson with the US weaponry and equipment they are to use during the operation. The drills include parachuting, operation planning, reconnaissance, assault operations and evacuations by helicopter.
“According to the exercise scenario, soldiers of the two countries will hold a tactical airborne operation, including reconnaissance of an imaginary terrorists' camp and a raid,” Colonel Kucherenko revealed.
The drills will take place between May 24 and 31. But it’s not all work: on May 27, the Russian paratroopers will get a chance to unwind at a baseball game in Colorado Springs.

By: Brant

US-Philippines Exercises in South China Sea

Despite China's "warning" the Philippines and US are pressing ahead with exercises.

Hundreds of American and Philippine troops waded ashore on Wednesday in a mock assault to retake a small island in energy-rich waters disputed with China, a drill Beijing had said would raise the risk of armed conflict.
The exercises, part of annual U.S.-Philippine war games on the western island of Palawan, coincide with another standoff between Chinese and Philippine vessels near Scarborough Shoal in a different part of the South China Sea.
China has territorial disputes with the Philippines, Vietnam, Brunei, Malaysia and Taiwan across the South China Sea, each searching for gas and oil while building up their navies and military alliances.
China said last week the drill would raise the risk of confrontation. On Wednesday, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Cui Tiankai said China was committed to dialogue and diplomacy to resolve the dispute.
"We are certainly worried about the South China Sea issue," Cui told a news briefing in Beijing, saying "some people tried to mix two unrelated things, territorial sovereignty and freedom of navigation".

View Larger Map

By: Brant

US-Philippines Exercises: Thumbing Noses at Chinese?

Yes, they've been scheduled forever, but the US and Philippine South China Sea drills seem to be a stick in the eye at the Chinese.

Joint military exercises between the US and the Philippines are getting under way in the South China Sea, even as Manila remained locked in a stand-off with Beijing over a disputed shoal.

The annual exercises, called Balikatan, are due to run until 27 April.

This year they are taking place off Palawan, near parts of the South China Sea both Manila and Beijing claim.

Meanwhile Philippine and Chinese vessels remain at the Scarborough Shoal, a week after the deadlock began.

The Philippines said its warship found eight Chinese fishing vessels at the shoal - which both sides claim - when it was patrolling the area on 8 April.

The Beeb's quickie analysis is also good.

China insists that its rights in areas like the disputed Spratly Islands are paramount, despite rival claims from the Philippines, Vietnam and other countries too.

The government in Manila is taking steps to modernise its small naval and air forces. But it is looking to Washington to help balance China's growing power.

Two decades after US forces were evicted from their biggest base in the Pacific, there has been talk of a renewed US military presence. The fact that the joint exercises are being held on the island of Palawan - the closest Philippines territory to the Spratlys - will doubtless irritate China.

Anyone else think the Philippinians are bummed they threw us out of Subic Bay?

By: Brant

Go Out On A DATE With The Army

The Army Times has an article about the new structure of training center rotations.

The Army is renewing its focus on the basics of war fighting.

After more than 10 years of war in Iraq and Afghanistan, where the Army honed and sharpened its counterinsurgency skills, soldiers can soon expect to spend more time on more comprehensive training to meet a hybrid threat that could span guerrilla, insurgent, criminal and conventional forces all in one environment.

“We’re going to go back and make sure we’re well grounded in the basics and fundamentals of war fighting,” said Brig. Gen. Clarence K.K. Chinn, commanding general of the Joint Readiness Training Center and Fort Polk, La. “We’ve been focused and training on fighting out of [combat outposts] and [forward operating bases] because that’s really what we needed to do. We needed to replicate as closely as we can the operational environment that we’re asking these brigade combat teams to go in and operate.”

Called Decisive Action training, these new rotations are already underway at the Army’s combat training centers, and they are designed for units that are not tagged for a specific upcoming deployment.

“In the future, where do we think we’ll be asked to fight?” Chinn said. “I say ‘fight’ because that’s what decisive action is. We’ve got to replicate that environment, just like we did before 2001, where we did full-spectrum operations.”

The new training rotations are part of what the Army calls the Decisive Action Training Environment.

Developed by Training and Doctrine Command’s Intelligence Support Activity, DATE is a notional operational environment that consists of five fictional countries named Ariana, Minaria, Atropia, Donovia and Gorgas.

Details on the "countries" when we can get them.

h/t Ed Mott

By: Brant

Major Exercises in India

The Indian Army is holding a series of major exercises in Rajathsan. And win we say "major"... well - when was the last time any western army put two full corps of troops in the field at the same time.

The exercise, involving the army's elite 1 Strike Corps and 10 Corps under the Jaipur-based South Western Command, will see the deployment of more than 200 tanks and over 20,000 troops in the border state.
'All formations and units under South Western Command will participate to validate doctrines in a joint service environment,' army spokesperson Col Jagdeep Dahiya said.
The war game comes soon after the army's exercise Sudarshan Shakti in Pokharan to validate its new battle-fighting concepts developed after the transformation studies carried out under army chief General V.K. Singh.
The exercise, one of the biggest manoeuvres ever based on the Integrated Theatre Battle Concept, will be held in the deserts of Bikaner and Shri Ganganagar.
'It will enable the army to validate its war fighting concepts while working towards a 'capability- based approach', relying on a series of transformational initiatives, concepts, organisational structures and absorption of newage technology,' Dahiya said.
The Western and South Western Commands of the air force are also likely to deploy their frontline aircraft, including the Su-30MKI, Mirage 2000, Jaguars and AWACs, for the war game.

By: Brant

Norks Leaving Now Doubt About Twitishness

They're going to shell the South just because they're holding a drill?

North Korea warned South Korea on Sunday that it would shell islands close to their disputed sea border if the South violates its territorial waters during a military drill reported to begin in the Yellow Sea this week.
The official KCNA news agency also quoted the North's military as urging civilians living on five islands near the disputed area to evacuate before the start of the military exercises on Monday.
The North has repeatedly threatened armed retaliation against the South's military exercises but it is rare for Pyongyang to mention in advance about evacuation of civilians over such drills.
The North's military said that if the South "starts a reckless military provocation in those waters, trespassing on the DPRK's inviolable marine demarcation line,.... the KPA will promptly make merciless retaliatory strikes."

By: Brant

Iranian Exercises On The Ground

Iran's military has started exercises on the ground.

Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guard began military exercises Saturday in the country's south, the latest show of force after threats to close the strategic Strait of Hormuz in retaliation for tougher Western sanctions.
Plans for new Iranian naval games in the Persian Gulf have been in the works for weeks. State media said that ground forces began maneuvers in southern Iran, but it was not immediately clear whether it was part of the planned naval training missions scheduled for this month or a separate operation.
The latest military maneuvers got under way following stern warnings by Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, about any possible U.S. or Israeli attacks against Tehran's nuclear facilities. It also comes after Western forces boosted their naval presence in the Gulf led by the American aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln.

I think we're all assuming that "powerful" in this context is a relative term. As in "powerful compared to the rest of the Iranian military, but shit-sucking lousy compared to a competent Western force."

By: Brant

US-Israel Drill Delayed

There was supposed to be a joint US-Israel drill starting this Spring, but they've delayed it 'til later in the year.

Israel and the United States opted to delay a major joint military exercise because of regional tensions and instability, Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said on Monday.
"The entire world understands that we had to postpone this exercise because of political and regional uncertainties, as well as the tensions and instability prevailing in the region," Lieberman told public radio.

If the exercise was postposed for "political and regional uncertainties, as well as the tensions and instability" in the Middle East, one wonders how it was scheduled at all.

By: Brant