From April 1 to May 27 NATO has been holding a very important training exercise in Poland. The exercise was specifically designed to test NATO’s Readiness Action Plan (RAP) and several headquarters through Europe.
The exercise was split in two smaller exercises. A first alert exercise was conducted between 1 and 10 April. The second actual deployment phase was executed between 17 and 27 May.
A total of 1.500 military personnel from Albania, Spain and the United Kingdom were involved and transported to Poland by sea, air and land. The troops were brought to Wroclaw and Szczecin and then brought together at the training area at Zagan. All these locations were in the western part of Poland. The Spanish 7th Light Infantry Brigade “Galicia” was one of the units involved. The brigade managed to transport its troops over sea towards the Polish port of Szczecin.
Analysis
The exercise marked the first big training deployment of the Very High Readiness Joint Task Force (VJTF). Brilliant Jump 2016 thus allowed NATO planners to see the activation, transport and deployment of the VJTF in practise. This in term allowed them to identify possible pitfalls and practical problems that need to be solved in order to speed up the process of deploying the VJTF. The ultimate goal that NATO put forward is to have the VJTF transported and deployed in a certain theatre of operations within two days.
The VJTF was deployed towards the western part of Poland. This area of operations coincides with the region where the presence of the VJTF is most needed and where they will most likely find the prospect of being deployed in the case of a conflict. Tense relations between NATO and Russia have been on-going for the past two years since the Russian annexation of the Crimea in February 2014. The annexation of Crimea made it clear that the current Russian regime under Vladimir Putin is willing to use military force to seek political and possible territorial gains. The general fear in Eastern Europe is that Russia might be seeking to increase its sphere of influence in this region.
The deployment of the VJTF to Poland marks a first step in finding a response against Russia’s capabilities to start conflicts in a very short time and take the international community by surprise. The goal is to deploy a small but strong enough force within the first two days and have them fully combat ready deployed in a certain area of operations where their need is greatest.
While the exercise in Poland marks the first step it will remain important to see where the next exercises of the VJTF will take place. Especially the Baltic States are in a difficult to defend position as these countries lack large armies and the necessary strategic depth to defend them against a Russian attack. The biggest need for the VJTF will thus be in the Baltic States. Getting the troops there will be more challenging given the longer transportation distances and the close proximity of these transport routes to the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad.
Either way, NATO needs the experience to mobilise fast and bring in the troops to their area of operations. Only with the necessary experience will NATO be able to decrease the timeframe of transporting and deploying the VJTF. In the end NATO must be able to have the VJTF in place within two days. This requires NATO to have a very clear and tested playbook with proven procedures to make such a deployment go as smooth as possible.
Missing the mark?
The major problem concerning Brilliant Jump 2016 was the deployment of the Spanish 7th Light Infantry Brigade “Galicia” with all their vehicles by sea which is unrealistic in the concept of the VJTF.
In order to reach the area of operations and be combat ready within two days the VJTF needs to be able to transport itself as fast as possible. This limits the options in the force structure of the VJTF. The case of the 7th Infantry Brigade serves as the bad example undermining the concept of the VJTF.
First, the reaction time of the VJTF to mobilise and be ready for transport needs to be a short as possible. To achieve this, the units making up the VJTF need to be hold at the threshold of high readiness in order not to waste time in the alert phase. Transporting a unit by sea means that a lot of time will be wasted by loading the vehicles on board of a ship. Granted this phase can be shortened by having the vehicles already loaded on board and have the ship hold on station in a certain maritime area only to be sent to the port nearest to the area of operations.
A second requirement is the fast transport towards the area of operations. The fastest way to transport troops to a certain area is still by airplane and not by the slow movement of a ship. Transportation by air does limit however the capacities that can be send. While most military cargo planes can carry heavy equipment they can only carry this in small amounts and by a high price while ships have the advantage of carrying a lot of heavy equipment by a fraction of the price. This explains why military build ups in overseas areas happen by maritime transport.
Transportation by air also limits the type of troops that can be carried to the area of operations. The fastest build-up of troops will be achieved by transporting light infantry units with small arms and their basic logistic equipment such as food an munitions. Heavier equipment such as vehicles and artillery support can be transported by air but at a slow pace, limiting a fast build up.
If the goal is to create a VJTF deployable and on the ground within two days the type of troops and their transportation is very limited to light infantry units only and with only basic logistic supplies. Transporting a unit over sea will take too long to allow a fast deployment. In this case, the Spanish 7th Light Infantry Brigade “Galicia” did not fit the requirements of the VJTF in the Brilliant Jump 2016 exercise. It did however formed an important component in a larger framework where the 7th Light Infantry Brigade acts as a support group reinforcing the VJTF but only after the VJTF has already arrived.
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