Botswana Command Team Visits Hohenfels

HOHENFELS, GERMANY

05.10.2023

Story by Sgt. Ty Baggerly 

7th Army Training Command

HOHENFELS, Germany—From Botswana to Germany - the U.S. Army’s Joint Multinational Readiness Center (JMRC) shared its training curriculum across continents with a visit from the Botswana Defence Force (BDF) May 9, 2023.

The command team from Botswana visited the JMRC to learn more about how the JMRC operates and how to better achieve the high level of expertise in training back in Botswana.

JMRC, located in Hohenfels, Germany, is the 7th Army Command directorate that focuses on world-wide mobile training capability, training leaders, staffs, units and multinational partners to dominate in the conduct of Unified Land Operations (ULO) anywhere in the world, now and in the future.

The JMRC not only provides training areas for multinational armies, it is also a place where foreign leaders can go to learn more about what it takes to be a leader in the observer-coach/trainer world (OC/T).

“The BDF team is here at the Joint Multinational Readiness Center by invitation from 7th Army Training Command to benchmark on a field training exercise for Combined Resolve 18,” said Col. David Nkete, delegation lead of the Botswana Ground Forces Command. “This is a capacity-building trip which will assist the Botswana Defence Force to build its OC/T capacity as it prepares for exercise Southern Accord 24 which Botswana will host in 2024.”

The ability to help other countries better their own training programs is a hallmark of the JMRC mission. Being the largest training center in Europe for American forces, it has a unique opportunity to invite other countries to observe what training the U.S. Army conducts. Out of the four Combat Training Centers that the U.S. Army operates, the JRMC is the one that focuses the most on interoperability between NATO partners.

“This is a good opportunity for us to reach multinational interoperability goals that we have at JMRC and help Botswana understand, to help plan for a rotation and also meet those multinational interoperability goals,” said Lt. Col. Jeremy Glosson, deputy chief of plans at JMRC. “It’s just good to have us both on the same glidepath and improve relations.”

As awareness of the JMRC mission grows, other countries will travel to Hohenfels to learn more about how to train. U.S. Army standards for training will be shared amongst partner nations, increasing interoperability on the battlefield.

“The most important takeaway is the level of development of the OC/T function as a key driver of training, which in turn assists the rotational training unit commander to achieve his training objectives,” said Nkete.

The attributes that the JMRC provides to other countries – and across continents - is key to helping allies and partners better their own OC/T abilities and to help keep countries around the world up to date on training and maintaining lethality.

• Date Taken: 05.10.2023
• Date Posted: 05.17.2023 03:34
• Story ID: 444598
• Location: HOHENFELS, DE