Jackal Cave 2015 – Special Cooperation

Col. Tamás Sándor, the commander of the HDF 34th “Bercsényi László" Special Forces Battalion told us that in the second phase, continuous combat action took place as the troops carried out altogether 17 different operations, from the capture of a high-value target to security patrolling.

Of the above tasks, the first one carried out on the May 28 visitors’ day was a raid on a weapons cache, executed by the US Special Operations Forces with the support of a platoon of the HDF 88th Light Infantry Battalion. The action was carried out smoothly, instantly and with utmost precision; its objective was to seize weapons and possibly explosives stored in the cache.

During the second phase of the demonstration for the media representatives, a company of the US 173rd Airborne Brigade was tasked with searching buildings in the area of Ruin City one after the other, eliminating enemy forces and separating civilians.

A Gripen fighter jet and helicopters provided close air support for the mission, during which US, Croatian and Hungarian Operational Detachment Alphas (ODAs) captured and extracted a high-value target.

“The main objective of the exercise was to integrate conventional and special operations forces, and to standardize and exchange various techniques. We have had close relations with the US Special Forces stationed in Germany since 2005 – for example, we were co-deployed in Afghanistan. Cooperation with the Croatian partners became really intense last year. They help us with generating a combat diver capability, providing opportunities for maritime operations, while we can develop their land-based and riverine SOF capabilities", Col. Tamás Sándor said.

Maj.-Gen. Sándor Fucsku, the commander of the HDF Joint Force Command said he was satisfied with what he had seen. As he told us, the cooperation between the different nations was clearly visible, and they performed the various maneuvers excellently.

“You cannot question their preparedness, and the cooperation between conventional and special operations forces and between land forces and the air force was professional", the major-general told us.

Col. Mark Karas, the military attaché of the United States of America told us that they are always pleased to conduct joint exercises with their NATO allies in the interest of creating interoperability. He added that we need to know each other’s tactics and procedures because it may happen that we need to co-deploy in real-world missions someday. The Croatian, Hungarian and US troops all performed excellently, the colonel said.

In the assessment of the tactical commander of the Croatian SOF ODA, during the two weeks the nations participating in the exercise shared experience and knowledge, and made friends with each other. He was of the opinion that the planners have done a great job in working out the fictitious exercise scenario, and said thanks for the excellent cooperation and for Exercise Jackal Cave.

Photo: Tünde Rácz