Start of Exercise Saber Junction 2016
Szöveg: bocskaidandar.hu | 2016. április 9. 10:13Since Easter, military units have been deploying to the Hohenfels military training area, Germany where the troops of 16 NATO and partner nations are conducting, under an American exercise control staff, an exercise in the scenario of a fictitious crisis response operation. During the exercise, they are going to practice defensive, offensive and peace support (stability) operational phases in parallel.
Planned to be running for a month, Exercise “Saber Junction 2016" is expected to involve some 5,000 troops altogether, and the US 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team is playing the main role in it, it being a certification exercise for the unit. This year Hungary is represented on the exercise – which has been iterated for many years – by the headquarters of the 39th Infantry Battalion of the HDF 5th “István Bocskai" Infantry Brigade (Debrecen) and the commanders of the sub-units and modular elements of the Infantry Battle Group drawn from the battalion.
The Hungarian contingent is going to operate in a simulated battlespace at a command post set up in the training area, under the command of the US brigade HQ that is also directing certain troop maneuvers in real space. This provides the Hungarian battalion HQ (Debrecen) with good opportunities to prepare for its own Combat Readiness Evaluation of Land Headquarters and Units (CREVAL) process, which is scheduled to take place this autumn. This CREVAL will be conducted in an international environment and will involve the whole Infantry Battle Group of the battalion. (Over the last six years, the 39th battalion has already passed two CREVALs with success.)
Following the creation of living and working circumstances, the first week of the Hungarian contingent was taken up with integration and foundation training. The primary training audience worked in “three shifts" in order to be trained in the use of the computer simulation system designed for the computer assisted exercise (CAX). At the breaks of the training, in line with the battalion commander’s intent, a number of academic seminars were also organized, alongside the start of situation awareness and mission analysis based on the available information.
Concurrently, a lessons learned team provided by the Debrecen brigade attended a five-day central training program, in which its members were introduced to the initial setting of the exercise specifications, the current basic principles of umpiring and performance assessment, the special security, environmental protection and work safety regulations of the exercise, and they also received training in the use of technical and simulation equipment.
Photo: HDF 5th “Bocskai István" Infantry Brigade
