FORT SILL, Okla., Sept. 14, 2017 -- As an officer with the 31st Air Defense Artillery Brigade here, I recently had the outstanding privilege of partaking in the United States and United Kingdom exchange program Persistent Venture 17. There were a couple dozen officers and noncommissioned officers from several branches of the U.S. and U.K. armies who participated in the program.
On the other side of the exchange, my brigade hosted Capt. Thomas Ayles and Sgt. Declan Parkes from the 16th Regiment Royal Artillery (RRA) at Thorney Island, U.K. I served for nearly three months on exchange attachment to the 16th RRA, also known as the British Army's Rapier Regiment.
The intent of the exchange was to build and maintain interoperability between the two armies. This is essential since conflicts are increasingly being fought with coalitions comprised of multiple nationalities.
Military relations between the two countries possess an enormous advantage over many other countries in the fact that we speak the same language. This enables the service members to learn each other's equipment and doctrinal differences quickly, which in turn allows us to rapidly bridge interoperability gaps.
While serving with the 16th RRA in the U.K, I received hands-on walk throughs of all ground-based air defense weapon systems employed by their army.
I also forward deployed with the 49th (Inkerman) Battery to Lithuania for Exercise Tobruq Legacy 17, a ground-based air defense NATO exercise. While in Lithuania, I served as the U.K. Air Picture Liaison Officer in the engagement cell. Not only did this serve as an excellent opportunity to see some of the U.K. systems in action, but it also gave me experience in making decisions on the employment of their systems. I learned much about their systems and processes by doing so.
The most important thing I learned from this exchange is how essential it is for officers to maintain technical and tactical knowledge in our weapon systems. Similarly to our Army, the British Army's enlisted artillerymen are divided into two branches guns (field artillery), and air defense. However, officers are classified as just "artillery," and alternate between guns and air defense assignments. This rotation between the two results in artillery officers becoming more generalist in the employment planning of their weapon systems, even though they are highly trained overall.
The consensus I received from the U.K. officers I met is they preferred to remain with either guns or air defense. As soon as they start to master their knowledge in the employment of one weapon system, their next assignment is likely to be the other branch, where they would need to start over, and vice-versa. The missions of field artillery and air defense artillery are completely different. One is offensive surface-to-surface fires, the other is defensive surface-to-air protection.
The U.K., like the U.S., relies heavily on NCOs to develop and maintain proficiency in the knowledge and operation of weapon systems, with weapon system employment planning being typically the lane of officers.
Knowledge in the capabilities and limitations of weapon systems is highly technical. Therefore, it is necessary for officers to have that knowledge in order to make the right employment planning decisions.
Overall, my exchange experience reinforced the idea that these types of exchanges are highly important and necessary, especially given the nature of the modern battlefield where we almost always train and fight alongside allies. It confirmed the concept of taking maximum advantage of exchange opportunities with our allies, especially the U.K. because speaking the same language provides a big opportunity to close interoperability gaps.
Social Sharing