FORT SILL, Oklahoma, (June 2, 2021) -- In his final year as the French liaison officer to the Fires Center of Excellence (FCoE), Lt. Col. Nicolas Konieczny served as a liaison officer to III Corps in Warfighter 21-4, April 6-15, at Fort Hood, Texas.
The exercise consisted of about 10,000 American, British, and French soldiers in field artillery and air defense artillery primarily at Fort Hood, but also at Fort Bliss, Texas, and Fort Bragg, North Carolina.
During this event, III Corps was supported by the U.S. Army’s 1st Armored Division, the French 3rd Division, and the British 3rd Division. Together, they faced off against an adversary played by the world class opposition force from the Mission Command Training Program at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.
Multiple brigades also participated, including the 75th Field Artillery Brigade, which Konieczny worked closely with.
The exercise enabled the French and U.S. armies to test the interoperability – human, procedural, and technical aspects - between a U.S. corps and a French division and to assess the compatibility of their systems. For Fires, Konieczny said the French systems are different, but compatible with U.S. systems through Artillery Systems Cooperation Activities and the procedures are fairly similar.
Konieczny said the exercise provided him the opportunity to operationalize all the experience he has gained in exercises with the U.S. Army and at Fort Sill. This enabled him to contribute actively in the liaison between III Corps and the French 3rd Division and to support the French forces’ training on targeting and U.S. Army procedures.
“I was able to fulfill my duties and communicate to the French Fire Support Coordination Cell what they needed to know for them to be compatible and more coordinated with III Corps and the adjacent divisions,” he said.
Looking beyond immediate lessons learned from Warfighter 21-4, Konieczny said the exercise gave the French Army and the 3rd French Division a glimpse at large scale combat operations after many years of commitment in counter-insurgency operations. Like the U.S. Army, the French Army is also focusing more and more on preparing its troops to the "high-intensity" environment with a specific attention to the corps and division levels.
As the three country’s armies were well prepared and rehearsed their processes and systems in a multinational validation event before the start of the exercise, all conditions were met and the exercise was a success. Konieczny mentioned that in previous Warfighter exercises he saw that the opposite force usually created very difficult conditions for the U.S. Army divisions and was able to take the initiative in the overall maneuver. But that didn’t occur this time.
“This time the opposite forces (OPFOR) were completely confused and didn’t know how to react to regain the initiative,” said Konieczny. “It’s not that we were better or stronger; it’s just that we were different.”
He said this difference was realized by how coalition forces maneuvered or responded to various scenarios and the coordinated capabilities of the Americans, French, and British to create - dilemmas for the adversary.
Konieczny said constant coordination with the other divisions enabled them to look out for each other while pursuing objectives they were assigned. This allowed III Corps to focus on targeting and to neutralize the OPFOR step by step.
Finally, a key role in the outcome was to follow a simple plan and to effectively use liaison officers to communicate between the three nations. For Konieczny serving as the French liaison officer for targeting, G35 and Fires at a corps level was a great opportunity and experience. He said the French Army has one corps, the Rapid Reaction Corps, which combines NATO and national missions. This corps was also actively involved in this exercise with the deployment of liaison officers to III Corps in addition of the French Liaison Officers coming from the U.S. Army Centers of Excellence.
Nearing the end of his assignment at the FCoE, Konieczny said he has learned a lot during his three years at Fort Sill and in the exercises he has been involved in with the U.S. Army. He is now looking forward to returning home to share his experiences with the French Army.
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