Grafenwoehr, Germany (March 7, 2017) -- "We're here as the force field artillery headquarters (FFA HQ)," said Joe Hilbert, the commander of the 82nd Airborne Division Artillery (82nd ABN DIVARTY) from Fort Bragg, North Carolina.
The 82nd ABN DIVARTY is one of the five U.S. units participating in the two-week exercise, Dynamic Front II, at the 7th Army Training Command's Grafenwoehr Training Area, Feb. 26 to March 10.
DF II is a multi-national exercise that focuses on identifying capabilities and limitations within the theater-level fires system by testing and syncing multi-echelon fires.
The exercise requires a mission command element that is capable of aligning technical and tactical fire direction from multiple partner nations under one headquarters. That is where a DIVARTY comes into play.
"One of the things that DIVARTYs does is function as a FFA HQ and that means synchronizing a fires fight for a division headquarters," said Hilbert. "In my mind, it makes perfect sense to have the 82nd ABN DIVARTY as the main headquarters for the exercise because that's what we would do."
"The 82nd ABN DIVARTY is a continental United States-based FFA HQ that can rapidly deploy and task organize multi-national field artillery units to include every Artillery Systems Cooperation Activities signatory as well as integrating aspiring ASCA members, to provide fires for the Allied Rapid Response Corps," said Maj. Charlie Brown, the 82nd ABN DIVARTY operations officer.
The DIVARTY brought with them two elements that were critical in the execution of the exercise.
"We bring the ability to provide mission command to attached fires assets whether they're target acquisition assets such as radars or delivery assets such as cannons and rockets," said Hilbert. "We also have the ability to provide the fires expertise for the fires plan."
Along with what a DIVARTY can bring to the exercise, they can also take home multi-national training that can aid in their ability to perform tasks as an interoperable FFA HQ.
The 82nd ABN DIVARTY is part of the 82nd ABN Division's global response force, which requires the unit to be fully mission capable to deploy rapidly to anywhere in the world.
"In order for us to be able to be prepared to do that, we have to learn how to operate in an environment [that involves] working with our coalition partners or with different combatant commands across the world," said Hilbert.
"There are many challenges, however the beauty is in the friction," said Brown. "A solutions-based approach is how we are going to work through the complexity inherent in large multi-national exercises."
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