HOHENFELS, Germany— Germany’s 1st Armored Division (1AD) takes lead of the high command (HICON) for exercise Allied Spirit X from March 30 through April 17, 2019 at Hohenfels Training Area for the first time since the inception of this exercise.
“Using the Joint Multinational Readiness Center provides excellent training conditions for the main training audiences; the German 21st Armored Brigade, the Lithuanian Iron Wolf Brigade, and their subordinate units,” said Maj. Gen. Jürgen-Joachim von Sandrart, commander of 1AD. “Coming here, we know we get the best support to achieve the training objectives.”
Allied Spirit is a U.S. Army Europe-directed, 7th Army Training Command-conducted multinational exercise series designed to develop and enhance NATO and key partner interoperability and readiness across specified warfighting functions. Including approximately 5,630 participants from 15
nations, a key highlight for Allied Spirit X is to stress current multinational
communications methods and test the functionality of a brigade-sized element with a multinational configuration.
Interoperability starts with a shift in mentality within the human domain, said von Sandrart.
“You must be willing to train and fight alongside your partner.”
For every Allied Spirit exercise, the responsibility of performing as the HICON has rotated nations. The 1AD already has Dutch, British and Polish officers within its ranks, making it a functioning multinational division even before this training exercise.
“If you look back into recent history, within the last two centuries, all military operations were depending on multinational force compositions,” said von Sandrart. “All of that starts with the training. You save blood with good training.”