WIESBADEN, Germany -- Army Europe hosted the inaugural Combined Training Conference General Officer Steering Committee at Clay Kaserne, here, March 10-12.
Army Europe's German Brig. Gen. Markus Laubenthal, chief of staff, and Brig. Gen. John Hort, chief of operations, hosted fifteen one- and two-star trainers from across the alliance's land and joint community who presented and discussed ideas for collective training in Europe.
Lt. Gen. Ed Davis, deputy commander of Allied Land Command, in Izmir, Turkey, and a British Royal Marine, participated as a special guest and thanked Army Europe for conceiving and providing a forum through which senior land force trainers can shape a broad range of events and exercises over a three year planning horizon.
Army Europe hosted the steering committee as a forum to guide planning for the semiannual Combined Training Conferences, the next of which will be held May 4-8, in Oberammergau, Germany.
The CTC, which had previously allowed up to 37 allied and partner nations and 35 headquarters from throughout the alliance to coordinate with one another and source each others' exercise and training activities, had its overarching mission of preparing units and individuals deploying in support of the International Security Assistance Force, or ISAF, the NATO-led security mission in Afghanistan.
It is clear that allied and partner participants want the CTC to serve as the primary vehicle for sharing information about planned activities, and coordinating support for future training.
Unique within Europe, the CTC is the only multinational conference that allows allied and partner land forces, with their joint counterparts, to coordinate support for training and exercises below the corps level.
Following the inaugural CTC GOSC, CTC planners will look to coordinate support in the Eastern part of the alliance, with a focus on Poland's Exercise Anakonda 16.
Other regional exercises planners must consider include France's Citadel Javelin, Italy's Summer Tempest, and Turkey's exercise EFES, which Turkish Land Forces will make available to select allied participation staring in summer 2016.
Additionally, the GOSC will seek to support alliance priorities identified during the NATO Summit in Wales, including how best to facilitate training for a revitalized NATO Response Force and the new Very High-Readiness Joint Task Force.
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About us: U.S. Army Europe is uniquely positioned in its 51 country area of responsibility to advance American strategic interests in Europe and Eurasia. The relationships we build during more than 1,000 theater security cooperation events in more than 40 countries each year lead directly to support for multinational contingency operations around the world, strengthen regional partnerships and enhance global security.
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