10th AAMDC Arrives in Romania

By Capt. Robert N. DurrJuly 11, 2017

Mihail Kogalniceanu Air Base, Romania -- After a 38-hour bus ride from its home in Kaiserslautern, Germany, the 10th Army Air and Missile Defense Command arrived at Mihail Kogalniceanu Air Base in Romania July 8. The unit will participate in the upcoming Tobruq Legacy exercise. The 10th AAMDC soldiers quickly began setting up tactical operations centers, communication networks and command and control measures for the exercise, which will take place from July 12-22. The 10th AAMDC will host an opening ceremony July 12 at MK Air Base.

TOBRUQ LEGACY 17, a U.S.-led air defense artillery exercise at several locations throughout the Czech Republic, Lithuania and Romania. The exercise will be executed simultaneously with U.S. Army Europe's (USAREUR) capstone exercise SABER GUARDIAN 17 (SG17) by supporting the 173rd Infantry Brigade Combat Team (Airborne) joint forcible entry during exercise Swift Response and during 2nd Cavalry Regiment's river crossing in Bordu�ani, Romania. Both TL17 and SG17 are part of this summer's 18 Black Sea Region exercises involving approximately 40,000 personnel from 23 countries.

The exercise serves not only as validation of newly obtained capabilities, but provides an opportunity to improve the level of interoperability of multinational Surface Based Air and Missile Defense systems forces. TL17 will continue to refine the tactics, techniques and procedures and standard operating procedures with regard to interoperability and the establishment of a multinational defensive fire engagement control team.

The TOBRUQ LEGACY exercise series began in 2015 as a trilateral exercise between the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and the United States.The exercise was designed to enable NATO SBADs to share data in an effort to build interoperability between NATO nations. TL17 will demonstrate NATO's capability to integrate sensors and shooters under the command and control of a single NATO mission command element.

TL17 will expand on last year's construct, employing three ground operations centers, called Surface Based Air Defense Operations Centers (SBADOCs), which are geographically dispersed in three countries.SBADOC-Center will be located in Military Training Area Hradiste, Czech Republic and will be commanded and controlled by a Czech battalion.SBADOC-North will be located at Siauliai International Airport, Lithuania and will be commanded and controlled by a Lithuanian battalion.SBADOC-South will be located at Mihail Kogalniceanu Air Base, Romania and will be commanded and controlled by a U.S. battalion.

All SBADOC commands will receive tactical control of forces and will organize and employ them to support TL17 training objectives.During this exercise all SBADOCs will generate a local air picture and provide those local air pictures to a NATO Joint Force Air Commander who is the TL17 higher control.

Media interested in covering Tobruq Legacy can contact 10th Army Air and Missile Defense Command Public Affairs Capt. Robert Durr at 0631-3406-2034 or robert.n.durr@mail.mil.