Special Operations Exercise director talks Flintlock 16 (TRANSCRIPT)

STUTTGART, GERMANY

02.03.2016

Story by Staff Sgt. Christopher Klutts 

U.S. Africa Command

STUTTGART, Germany - U.S. Army Lt. Col. William D. Rose discusses EXERCISE FLINTLOCK 2016, a special operations exercise designed to increase interoperability and collaboration among partner nations to cooperatively counter today’s threats in North and West Africa. Flintlock 2016 will be hosted by Senegal in February 2016

ROSE:

The Flintlock exercise at its core is a special operations counter-terrorism exercise. It is designed specifically to train and exercise regional forces by country among our African partners specifically focused on North and West Africa to counter the relevant threats that they are dealing with today.

The Flintlock Exercise has really expanded in its scope and interest among our partners, and now we are very happy to say that we have typically over 30 nations involved, both on the continent of Africa and from our different partner nations across Europe and North America here. And this ranges from partners in West Africa from Senegal, Mali and Mauritania to the Lake Chad Basin area with Nigeria, Chad and Cameroon.

The Flintlock Exercise and what it has evolved to today has really become a regional focus. In years and years past, it focused more on one to two countries at a time. But probably the biggest objectives that we pursue and seek to validate from the exercise is getting these countries comfortable with coordinating across their borders, getting them and giving them tools to collaborate and share information. An African proverb that they – our partners - like to quote often is, “When your neighbor’s house is on fire, you help put it out in order to safeguard your own” and we really want to reinforce that through the exercise.

A special operations forces specific to the countries that we work with all bring a different capability to the table and it’s tailored and based on the needs of that specific nation, whether it’s a true counter-terrorism piece, whether it’s more of an information intelligence gathering to share with organizations such as law enforcement and the government in order to identify and then hopefully to prevent you know, the threats before they actually take action, or even afterwards in order to, you know, pursue and bring to justice those that are culpable in some of the terrorist activities that may occur.

So for special operations specifically, what we want to do through the Flintlock Exercise is highlight that need, and then assist in our partner nations in identifying what gaps do you have that exist; is it specific to your country and your need, and what is the best way to apply a force like Special Operations to that to answer that gap or need.

This year we’re looking at over 1500 participants from over 30 different countries, African partner nations as well as European and North American partners, all coming together to share experiences, common tactics, techniques and procedures and best practices with all of our partners in order to more effectively create individual forces that can counter the threats that their specific countries may face.

What is also distinct about this Flintlock is the amount of resources that our partners have brought to it. We have everything from aircraft being brought in in order to support and facilitate our partners and the training and exercises that we’ll conduct to high level staff officers.

We are leading off with a senior leader discussion to better frame the exercise and how it applies to our various nations and we also have a great number of staff officers involved that are directly responsible for each country’s training as well as planning and coordinating operations.

The range of training for this Flintlock is also incredibly varied; it ranges everything from the staff officer level, techniques and procedures that we have all gleaned from real-world operations from a planning and coordination level down to the tactical level which ranges from riverine and maritime operations using special boat units and equipment to small unit tactics on ranges and from close quarters combat to “social patrolling” as our African partners like to put it, which is interfacing with the local populace in order to gain information about be it nefarious or illicit activities or potential threats that may exist in the small towns and villages that they patrol and deal with every day.

What is also distinct about this Flintlock exercise is the number of interagency partners we have involved as well. Everybody from the FBI to the Department of Justice and Drug Enforcement Agency to offices within State Department that focus on assisting in anti-terrorism efforts specifically training up our partner nations in things like border security, site exploitation and gathering evidence and assisting in the Gendarmerie or local police in order to facilitate the civil side of justice as it comes up.

The exercise activities will take place not just in one location in the country of Senegal, primarily Thies which is the primary military training site, but also among four different outstations among the country primarily on their borders and associated with their military installations as well as the country of Mauritania with their national level headquarters and two other locations within that country as well.

So Flintlock truly keeps a regional focus and a regional flavor from year to year and we will always look to maintain and expand that.

It is also key and important to realize that Flintlock is not a sole US exercise or something that we plan and execute ourselves but is the culmination of the efforts primarily of our Africa partners this year. Senegal plays a major role but without the other countries such as Burkina Faso, Mali, Mauritania, Chad, Niger, Nigeria, they all contribute to identifying the training needs, and then resourcing it, and then ultimately executing the exercise to make it successful for us all.

For our African partners this exercise is not just some notional event that we do, but it is directly based on the very current, real and relevant threats that they face in their own nations. Flintlock addresses real problems that our partners face today, so that the urgency that they have in countering those threats is addressed immediately in the exercise and gives them the tools that they begin applying as soon as they return to their home countries and home stations.

Throughout the Flintlock Exercise we also have integrated a large number of civil-military operations, and by that I mean specific outreach activities that reach out to local orphanages, hospitals, small villages and towns that may have some kind of need, whether that’s a clean water source or some medical treatment that might be identified. We also try to answer those needs, again, as a way of showcasing their military and their capability to their own citizens.

From a U.S. standpoint specifically, we are learning as much as we are bringing to the table. Our African partners are just that – they are partners and are peers, and what they have learned on a daily basis they bring to this event, share it with us, and we learn how better we can integrate our own assets and our own resources and efforts into countering these regional threats and terrorist threats that they may face and then we can apply these.

• Date Taken: 02.03.2016
• Date Posted: 02.03.2016 11:03
• Story ID: 187791
• Location: STUTTGART, DE