U.S. Army’s JMC; coalition partners assess JMNI at JWA19

Photo By Sgt. 1st Class Joseph Donnelly | JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, Wash. - Left to right, U.S. Army Maj. Jordan D. Ordonio, 7th Division, and French Army Lt. Col. Stephane Makowski evaluate systems in the Mission Training Complex during the Joint Warfighting Assessment 19 here May 2, 2019. JWA 19 is the Army’s premier modernization assessment; weaving material solutions, multi-domain operations, MDO formations, concepts and capabilities at echelon into the Army’s largest joint, multinational, live, virtual and constructive exercise aligned to the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command area of operations. (U.S. Army National Guard photo by Sgt. 1st Class Joseph Donnelly, 444th MPAD)  

JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, WA, UNITED STATES

05.10.2019

Story by Sgt. 1st Class Joseph Donnelly 

444th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment

JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, Wash. – Joint Multinational partners at Yakima Training Center and here, participated in the U.S. Army’s Joint Warfighting Assessment 19, April 23 to May 11, 2019.

The Joint Modernization Command sponsored exercise had more than 4,000 military and civilian personnel simulate a future operational environment exercise meant to embody the capabilities of both friendly and enemy forces.

JWA 19 tested joint-multinational interoperability of current and projected future technology along with human factors to fuse Australia, United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand, France and Singapore, along with the U.S. Army to improve battle strategies.

Also, JWA 19 tested and assessed 28 concepts and capabilities to improve the effectiveness of multinational resources working through technical, tactical, procedural and cultural differences.

However, not all areas of the exercise can be easily measured by the same metrics.

When considering the outcome of the combined technical and tactical aspects of the JMNI concept, construct and the JWA 19 exercise, measuring the interface of success are quantitative. Success is measured not just by whether a country passed or failed a mission tasker but also on how the national partners solved problems.

For New Zealand Army Sgt. Christopher Courtney, 1st Command Support Regiment, a cyber-network defender at JWA 19 in the coalition network operation security center, it’s about learning the subtle differences between our systems’ tools, and when we come onto the U.S. systems.

“We just need to learn how to adapt our tools with theirs,” said Courtney. He generally does a ‘Soldiers five,’ which is a few quick tidbits of information about how something works. “Because we identify the problem, we are able to fix it,” said Courtney.

As countries begin to understand the various systems and where it is all going we all move in one direction said Australian Army Capt. Chris Chapman.

However, sharing and improving on technology and tactical functioning at JWA 19 effectively and efficiently is just one part of the puzzle.

Tracking these functions procedurally can also be objective.

In any organization, especially the military, procedures and protocols are ingrained into its core. There is always a doctrine on how to accomplish or achieve specific goals and strategies during battle.

However, every country has its own doctrine, and sharing this knowledge is critical to the success of a combined JMNI coalition.
“At the same time you’ve got other nations that may not necessarily be sharing the same vision,” said Royal Welsh British Army Lt. Col. Kevin Taaffe, chief interoperability officer, JMC.

“You got the challenge of trying to rely on everyone seeing the same problem the same way and using collaborate solutions as an answer,” said Taaffe. “The U.S. Army is trying to find strategies for that problem and it is complex. Ultimately, it will be about the ability to act coherently and efficiently together as a combined force, against shared strategically operational and tactical objectives.”

The cultural aspect of JWA 19 is perhaps the most challenging JMNI concept and the most difficult to evaluate and rate its success.
Being capable of speaking and communicating with each other technically, coherently and educationally along with culturally, allows us to act and understand each other said Taaffe.

Unlike the technical and tactical aspects, the JMNI procedure is difficult because of the participation of many nations involved. Each nation has a vision of how they see the end state, which may be a byproduct of a nation’s culture.

If not noticed, this background can be ingrained and difficult to identify and invisible to the strategies that may not be in the best interest of all the nations involved.

So you got the challenge says Taaffe, of trying to rely on everyone seeing the same problem the same way and trying to find a solution without interference of cultural background.

At JWA 19, there is a lot of work that has been proven to be successful to the JMNI concept militarily but on the other side it has revealed that technical, tactical and procedural steps are not going to be the only assets that will drive toward achieving an objective.

• Date Taken: 05.10.2019
• Date Posted: 05.10.2019 11:27
• Story ID: 321868
• Location: JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, WA, US