Photo By Staff Sgt. LaShic Patterson | The 2d Cavalry Regiment hosted its second NATO Motorized Infantry Forum at the NATO...... read more read more
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OBERAMMERGAU, Germany - The 2d Cavalry Regiment hosted its second annual NATO Motorized Infantry Forum at the NATO School in Oberammergau with NATO allied and partner nations to develop and promote unified ground deterrence on Nov. 6-8, 2018.
Leaders and representatives from Motorized Infantry Brigades and their equivalent presented interactive briefs on topics such as land forces and their organizations, unit capabilities, mobility, sustainment, communication, correcting shortfalls and future capabilities.
NATO allied and partner nations at the international forum who led the briefs included Lithuania, Finland, Albania, France, Italy, United Kingdom, Denmark, Belgium and 2CR.
The goal for this forum was to build upon the main objective of the first forum, learning about each other’s weapon systems to generate tactical interoperability, with this year’s focus on wheeled vehicle platforms.
“We really wanted to focus on our allies and partners that either already have a wheeled vehicle platform similar to ours like the Stryker or are interested in or transitioning into that type of formation,” said Col. Thomas Hough, Commander of 2CR, who also explained how our allies and partners are increasing their defense spending and creating similar formations.
“This is just a forum to bring everybody together to bring a like-minded community from the motorized infantry together and have that conversation about best practices and so forth,” continued Hough.
This year introduced 2CR to Infantry Carrier Vehicle-Dragoons, M1126 Stryker Infantry Carrier Vehicles with a turret-mounted 30mm cannon, that were successfully used in two gunneries, live fire exercises and the Dragoon Ready exercise.
Doctrine for the new Stryker Dragoons will include input from leaders of 2CR on the system’s value to mission readiness to include their positive return on investment, added under-armor Javelin capabilities and increased defense against mechanized adversaries.
The forum also provided 2CR with the opportunity to learn from their allies and partners on ways to increase their capabilities with better mobility to stay competitive.
During 2CR’s maintenance capabilities brief, Catherine Doherty, the project manager for the Army’s Stryker Brigade Combat Team, mentioned the arrival of tire racks to 2CR in the upcoming year that will allow for tires to be carried with the Stryker Dragoon vehicles, which will cut down on vehicle scheduled services with contractors.
Lt. Col. Frank Jensen, the commanding officer for 1 Battalion Royal Guard Hussars of the Royal Danish Army, spoke on their formations receiving updated weapon systems and wheeled vehicles to match the capabilities of their international allies and partners.
Through a partnership with France for armored vehicles, Lt. Col. Patrick Bonfanti, the senior officer of the Belgian Army Defense Motorized Brigade, discussed how his formations are also looking to receive updated weapon systems and wheeled vehicles that will allow them to act faster against threats in the four capacities of innovation, cyber, protection active and capture, allowing them to enter the 21st century in a credible way.
British forum presenter Lt. Col. Mark Berry, the commanding officer of Household Cavalry Regiment in the United Kingdom, shared ideas of how wheeled vehicles perform better than tracked vehicles, which sparked him to challenge his formation to think outside the box.
“By forcing them to think differently, we did come up with something that was new and would be surprising to [our adversaries],” said Berry. “I come back to a point made by our current Chief of General Staff who was appointed this year, Gen. Mark Carleton-Smith, who pointed out why would you ever follow a dark triangle attack that you have published in a book and that you have released across the nation in which you know your adversaries will have read.”
“We simply can’t allow ourselves to do that anymore; we have to be surprising. We have to understand doctrine to know how and why we are departing from it,” Berry completed.
In his closing remarks during the forum, Hough discussed ways to approach problem solving, one of which includes 2CR’s implementation of a Stryker Leader Course, a 3-1/2-week course that will offer training on maintenance, driver’s training, how to employ weapon systems, communications and safety training.
“We’re definitely not the harbinger of all good ideas at 2CR,” said Hough. “I’ve learned a lot from our allies here over the last two days. Some of the same issues they have are some of the same issues we have, and [we see] their approach to problem solving and how they’re going about it.”
Through partnership with the 7th Army Training Command and their organization, Combined Arms Training Center, the course is tentatively scheduled for February 2019 with platoon and squad leaders as its initial target audience to ensure the tactical operation of the Stryker Dragoon vehicles.
| Date Taken: | 11.13.2018 |
| Date Posted: | 11.14.2018 03:44 |
| Story ID: | 299788 |
| Location: | DE |
| Web Views: | 433 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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