56th Artillery Command leads exercise Dynamic Front 23

GRAFENWÖHR, Germany — U.S. Army Soldiers with 1-7 Field Artillery Regiment, 1st Infantry Division from Fort Riley Kansas, along with 17 European allies and partner nations, integrated joint fires and tested interoperability during exercise Dynamic Front 23 in the latter half of March.

Exercise Dynamic Front 23 is a U.S. Army Europe and Africa-directed, 56th Artillery Command-led multinational exercise designed to improve allied and partner nations’ ability to execute multi-echelon fires while testing interoperability of tactical to theater-level fires systems in a live environment. Though Dynamic Front began in 2015, this was the second iteration of Dynamic Front conducted by the 56th Artillery Command.

This year’s integrated exercise focused on fires interoperability with NATO allies and partner nations’ artillery and fire support systems working together with a program called Artillery Systems Cooperation Activities.

“U.S. Army units always benefit greatly when training alongside our NATO allies and our partners,” said Maj. Gen. Stephen Maranian, commanding general of the 56th Artillery Command. “During exercises like Dynamic Front, the NATO Alliance is able to increase interoperability across all domains, improve our readiness, and demonstrate our resolve."

This iteration of Dynamic Front utilized the mission partner environment, or MPE, network. Use of MPE during Dynamic Front provides allies and partners the ability to share fire mission data and execute mission command in a multinational environment across the various fire control systems each nation brings to the fight. This is a big step forward in fulfilling the 56th Artillery Command mission as the force field artillery headquarters and senior fire support coordination element for the combined forces land component command in Europe. This digital expansion and connection allows more nations to participate, providing greater training opportunities than could be executed at a single training area without travel.

Master Sgt. J. Hudeck, from 13th Artillery Regiment, Czech Republic, said it was important to be able to come together in a partnership to experience and see how we allies and partners can work as one to control joint fire capabilities. Hudeck has trained in the Dynamic Front exercise for two iterations. "It's an incredible opportunity — we’re training with the world’s artillery experts across all the nations, regardless of the country,” said Hudeck.

Since its launch in 2015, planners say the exercise has progressively built upon previous successes, increasing in both scope and scale over the last eight years. This year’s simulation and live fire exercise stressed logistics, fires, and communications over space and time, taking seven months to plan and execute.