U.S. Army advisors participate in multinational training exercise in Africa
NAIROBI, KENYA – A breeze swept through the open doors into the classroom where a room full of multinational partners, including advisors from the 2nd Security Force Assistance Brigade, listened intently to a briefing about a training scenario. The briefings continued throughout the day, in multiple languages, as part of preparation for a culminating exercise designed to test the working relationship and capabilities between the different militaries.
Despite the different backgrounds and countries from which the military members reside, one word described their successful ability to work together: partnership.
The exercise, Justified Accord 2024, is U.S. Africa Command’s largest exercise in East Africa. Hosted in Kenya since 2022, this year’s exercise involved personnel and units from 23 different nations. It focused on readiness, building relationships between partner forces, regional security and crisis response.
“We’re excited to train together with our international partners and allies in Kenya,” said U.S. Army Lt. Col. Jason Porter, deputy chief of exercises (G7), U.S. Army Southern European Task Force, Africa (SETAF-AF).
Advisors from 2nd SFAB partnered with the U.K.’s 11th SFAB (Irish Guards) to advise and assist the partnered militaries who met in Kenya. The relationship between the two allies helped increase interoperability as advisors in Africa and allowed them to share best practices between their advisor teams.
“Working alongside our U.K. counterparts has been both a rewarding and educational experience,” said U.S. Army 1st Sgt. Brandon Herron, a team sergeant in 2nd SFAB. “Their unique perspective broadened our team’s understanding of the joint planning process, and we look forward to any future opportunities to collaborate with our 11th SFAB partners.”
This is not the first Justified Accord in which the 2nd SFAB has participated. Last year at Justified Accord 2023, the brigade facilitated a staff officer’s course based on the military decision-making process. Senior military leaders from 20 different countries spanning four continents took part in that specific course, just one part of the exercise.
This year’s exercise featured a similar course taught by senior military leaders from several multinational partners, including SFAB advisors, during academics week, the first of the two-week exercise. Hosted by the Kenyan Defence Forces at the Humanitarian Peace Support School, academics week consisted of several other courses that multinational partners took part in, including Rule of Law, Women, Peace and Security, as well as Joint Humanitarian Operations.
Following academics week, partners put their knowledge to the test through a series of small exercises, including a command post exercise, which challenged communications and interoperability during a simulated crisis situation.
In addition to the CPX at HPSS in Nairobi, partners converged near Nanyuki, in northern Kenya, to conduct maneuver operations training. 2nd SFAB advisors provided a variety of tactical-level classes on urban operations, tactical combat casualty care, and civil-military cooperation both before and during the exercise.
“Throughout this exercise, the 11th SFAB, as well as my team, provided numerous training topics to really increase the crisis responsiveness of the participating partners,” said U.S. Army Capt. Alex Roose, 2nd SFAB advisor.
Roose and his team have been working with the Bataillon d'intervention Rapide (BIR), a unit in the Armed Forces of Djibouti, for the past 3 months. Justified Accord represented a culmination of the team’s partnership and work with the BIR.
Advisors plan to participate in more training exercises throughout the year, including African Lion in May, alongside multinational and partners and joint forces. African Lion 2024, hosted by Morocco, Ghana, Senegal and Tunisia, is a continuation of U.S. Africa Command’s annual exercise series featuring more than 10,000 participants.
About 2nd SFAB
Operating alongside foreign forces, the 2nd SFAB improves partner capability and capacity. At the same time, they are utilized as the conduit to bring the support of the U.S. joint force.
The U.S. Army established the first security force assistance brigades in 2017 with two deployments to Afghanistan and one to Africa. Today, the five active-duty SFABs are regionally aligned with a sixth SFAB in the U.S. National Guard. Since 2020, when the U.S. Department of Defense aligned the 2nd SFAB with U.S. Africa Command’s area of responsibility, Army advisers have built relationships and expanded influence through security force assistance in 15 African countries.
About SETAF-AF
SETAF-AF supports competition, provides command and control in the land domain, strengthens partnerships, sets the theater, and conducts security force assistance in order to achieve U.S. Africa Command and U.S. Army Campaign Plan objectives. SETAF-AF provides U.S. Africa Command and U.S. Army Europe & Africa a dedicated headquarters to synchronize Army activities in Africa and scalable crisis response options in Africa and Europe.
About exercise Justified Accord
Justified Accord 2024 is U.S. Africa Command's largest exercise in East Africa, running from February 26 - March 7. Led by SETAF-AF, and hosted in Kenya, this year's exercise incorporated personnel and units from 23 nations. This multinational exercise built readiness for the U.S. joint force, prepared regional partners for UN and AU mandated missions, and increased multinational interoperability in support of humanitarian assistance, disaster response and crisis response.
Maj. Rick Dickson is the Public Affairs Officer for 2nd SFAB.
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