Wednesday May 28, 2014
What is it?
Combined Resolve II is a U.S. Army Europe-led multinational exercise now in progress at Germany’s Grafenwoehr and Hohenfels training areas, that includes more than 4,000 participants from 15 allied and partner nation forces. The six-week exercise is the first major combat training center rotation for the European Rotation Force, a combined arms battalion from the 1st Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division at Fort Hood, Texas.
The exercise, focuses on unified land operations in a decisive action training environment, highlighted by three multinational events featuring U.S. and partner forces operating together: a situational training lanes exercise; a brigade force-on-force maneuver exercise at Hohenfels’ Joint Multinational Readiness Center; and a combined arms live-fire exercise involving the 2nd Battalion, 5th Cavalry, a Romanian mechanized battalion and a light infantry company from the Republic of Georgia.
What is the Army doing?
With the development of Army regionally aligned forces, the Fort Hood brigade has been assigned a two-pronged mission. The ERF is intended to be the Army’s rotational force for Europe, as well as to fulfill U.S. requirements for the NATO Response Force (NRF). To support those missions the Army has pre-positioned the European Activity Set (EAS) at Grafenwoehr, a state-of-the-art set of armored vehicles and equipment capable of outfitting a brigade combat team headquarters and battalion-sized task force with enablers. Combined Resolve II marks the first time a U.S. Army rotational force will use the EAS.
What continued efforts does the Army have planned for the future?
Future ERF/NRF training events are expected to take place across the European theater, from the world-class Joint Multinational Training Command facilities in Grafenwoehr and Hohenfels to partner nation training areas throughout the U.S. European Command area of responsibility. To multiply these efforts, JMTC is developing a Connected Training Initiative (CTI) that supports NATO’s Connected Forces Initiative. The CTI will digitally connect NATO and member nation simulation centers across Europe with JMTC and the U.S. in an effective, cost efficient system that allows USAREUR to conduct large-scale mission command exercises with members of the alliance and other multinational partners.
Why is this important to the Army?
Exercises such as Combined Resolve II demonstrate the U.S. Army’s commitment to the NATO alliance by preparing U.S., NATO and allied and partner nation units to respond together seamlessly for multinational contingency operations while increasing collective readiness and interoperability and keeping partnerships strong.
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