Photo By Sgt. 1st Class Edward French | Eager Lion 2015 is a multinational exercise held in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan...... read more read more
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HASHEMITE KINGDOM OF JORDAN – Eager Lion 2015 officially comes to a close, May 19, after more than two weeks of training in the region.
Now in its fifth year, the multinational exercise included U.S. and Jordanian military forces and more than two dozen partner nations. The exercise is designed to increase interoperability and facilitate responses to conventional and unconventional threats.
Command Sgt. Maj. Robert Abernethy, Special Operations Central Command senior enlisted adviser, witnessed several training events at the King Abdullah II Special Operations Training Center in Amman, and noticed the synergistic effect between the countries involved in the training scenarios.
“When you can get all these type A elements … all of these elite counter-terrorism elements all in one place, and they all have their different ideas of how they’re going to actually execute a mission and then get in one spot and have them work together, compromise, and negotiate to accomplish the mission, that truly is the essence of what Eager Lion is all about,” said Abernethy.
The tactical execution of the missions which also served to showcase the men’s interoperability was quite impressive, Abernethy added.
Command Sgt. Maj. Patrick McCauley from U.S. Army Special Operations Command at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, echoed his counterpart’s sentiments.
“The fact that you could take that many assault forces together with the language barriers, and with the coordination that is required to pull that off, and to do so as smoothly as they did, impressed us both,” McCauley said.
One prime example was Poland’s elite counter-terrorism unit, otherwise known as GROM, in the lead as the ground force planner for the non-combatant evacuation and embassy reinforcement scenarios that took place at KASOTC.
Both sergeants major agreed the missions were extremely well planned out and bringing all the entities together, the end result was very well executed.
Training together as a coalition not only increased efficiency, it allowed members to share tactics, techniques, and procedures they may not have had in common.
Lt. Col. Patrick Vermer, a commanding officer in the Belgian army, said the most valuable part of the exercise was to train and execute missions with partner nations.
“To execute our TTPs in a unique operational context from CJTF [combined joint task force] down to tactical units, in a physically and culturally demanding environment, within a multinational context with elite troops was a great opportunity,” he said.
Vermer said the training in Amman was something his troops simply could not get in Belgium and proved invaluable.
“In three weeks’ time here, we’ve collected an outstanding and incomparable experience; more than in one full year of training back home. For our planners at the staff level and for our teams in the field, they had the opportunity to interact and coordinate with all their stakeholders,” Vermer said.
The future of military operations, McCauley stated, relies on coalition teamwork.
“That’s what ultimate success is going to look like,” he said. “It can’t be the United States trying to solve problems; it’s got to be a coalition of governments that together, are holistically looking at the problems that are out there and looking for solutions.”
Eager Lion 2015 definitely tested the interoperability of the nations and their forces and proved that training together and building partnerships pays dividends when conducting operations together.
Lt Col. Mohammed Al-Atiyat, a fighter controller with the Royal Jordanian Air Force, said everyone working together to achieve the same goal was inspiring.
“What I noticed was how armies from different countries get along together to achieve the same goal, and try to understand each other to do their task,” Al-Atiyat said.
“Everyone worked together – the army, ground forces, air force, and navy – the whole government worked toward the same goal; it was more efficient than working alone.”
Regardless of the nation, the theme that resonated over and over was the same.
“At the end of the day, we see borders between countries, but the enemy doesn’t see those borders; so any time we can work together as a team, we’re going to be much more effective,” said Abernethy.
“The U.S. is not going to win alone; we have to win this fight through our partners. They have to be the ones in the lead across this region if we ever want to be able to effectively counter the violent extremist ideology we have going on right now,” Abernethy continued.
“This is an event where we can bring all of our partners together, build relationships, learn from each other, and go back to our respective countries and use those techniques we’ve learned.”
Some of those techniques were on display through the many training scenarios in various parts of the country. Partners participated in direct action drills, NEO exercises, a visit, board, search and seizure exercise, as well as smaller scenarios such as personnel recovery, combat search and rescue, live-fire exercises, and close-quarter battles.
Lead operations officer for Eager Lion 2015, U.S. Army Maj. Joseph Vigueras, said the exercise’s success was due to the input and assistance of coalition partners in the planning process.
“Everyone who had some part in the planning and execution of the exercise were valuable assets,” Vigueras said.
“The exercise was designed to test our joint-interoperability and we succeeded.”
U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Christopher Burns, assistant commanding general for U.S. Special Operations Command Central, said Eager Lion helped coalition partners better understand how to deploy their forces forward.
“With regard to real-world events -- especially Daesh, the exercise allowed our coalition SOF partners to build confidence and also allowed us to all share ideas from a SOF perspective,” Burns said.
Future wars, Al-Atiyat said, will not be between two countries, it will be a coalition effort.
“We want peace with all our neighbors around us, but sometimes peace needs force, especially when other nations don’t take it [peace] seriously,” Al-Atiyat continued.
“It’s exciting to see the training take place and tying and weaving it all together,” Burns said.
“This exercise proves for Jordanians in particular, that their focus and resolve to work on their security, to reflect and begin to implement training is a serious commitment.”
Through the myriad training scenarios Eager Lion provided, Burns said the participants learned exactly what was needed in the region by executing complex planning scenarios and collaborating together – realizing in the process that no nation alone can win this fight.
“The ability for Jordan to bring all these partners together is a testament to Jordanians that despite everything that’s going on, their partners find value in joint training exercises like Eager Lion,” said Burns.
Participants in this year’s exercise were: Australia, Bahrain, Belgium, Canada, Egypt, France, Iraq, Italy, Kuwait, Lebanon, Pakistan, Poland, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, as well as NATO’s Allied Rapid Reaction Corps.
| Date Taken: | 05.19.2015 |
| Date Posted: | 05.20.2015 06:05 |
| Story ID: | 163909 |
| Location: | HASHEMITE KINGDOM OF JORDAN, JO |
| Web Views: | 683 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Eager Lion 2015 – A Success All Around, by Reina Vasquez, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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