CINCU, Romania\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Deep in the hills of central Romania, a large portion of the U.S. Army’s first rotational heavy brigade has converged for a large-scale, combined arms live-fire exercise to take place July 15.
But the brigade didn\u2019t settle into one spot in Poland and instead spread out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At the start of the deployment, one battalion headed to the Baltic region\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Atlantic Resolve North\u00a0\u2014\u00a0and another battalion deployed to Romania and Bulgaria\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Atlantic Resolve South\u00a0\u2014\u00a0while the bulk of the team stayed in Poland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And how the ABCT dispersed became more complex as the deployment went on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For Capt. Ryan Van Wie, the headquarters commander of the 1st\u00a0Battalion, 66th\u00a0Armor Regiment, his unit started in Karliki, Poland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The unit then moved to Grafenwoehr, Germany, where it spent five months and completed large portions of training requirements from individual weapons qualification all the way to a culminating live-fire training exercise.\u00a0Then it moved to Hohenfels, Germany, for the Combined Resolve 8 force-on-force exercise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Picking up once more, Van Wie\u2019s unit moved to Romania for CALFEX, part of Saber Guardian, the largest military exercise in Europe this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And after the exercise it will move back to Karliki.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Traveling heavy<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Moving all of the heavy equipment by rail has quickly become second nature to the team, Van Wie described, despite having to move across borders and convoy equipment through regions where roads are more accustomed to a horse and buggy than an Abrams tank.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Several soldiers in the brigade said they\u2019ve trimmed down the process of getting equipment locked down and ready to move by rail from a few days to just a few hours. Once off the rails in Romania, the battalion had to route the equipment around several bridges that couldn’t bear the weight of 70-ton tanks and roughly 25 kilometers of road to get to the training center.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mastering such a skill is vital, according to Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges, U.S. Army Europe commander, with units spread over huge swaths of territory. He recently asked for more allies to contribute in ways that enhance freedom of movement across borders and large territories by providing heavy equipment transport and other transportation, guaranteeing rail access and improving rail heads in order to be able to move a brigade by rail in 48 hours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n
Always on the move<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The brigade is also exercising what will likely be future operational scenarios, as well. Army leaders have stressed the need for troops to learn how to stay mobile to avert a near-peer adversary, to operate in dispersed and independent formations and be more self-sustaining.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Van Wie recalled rotations at the Joint Readiness Training Center during prior deployments where units lived at a Forward Operating Base and would return there every night after patrols. “Here in a decisive action environment, we are constantly on the move and so rarely do you stay in one location more than a day.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Over the course of two days at the CJNTC, the tactical operations command post for the exercise moved overnight to a different location and other units have been sleeping directly near their equipment. Paladin howitzer operators told Defense News they have spent some nights at the training center sleeping on top of the weapon system itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another issue the ABCT has been working out is how to provide resupply for highly mobile and dispersed units who may be under indirect fire or whose resupply lines itself could be under attack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“That was a big challenge that we had to learn to cope with,” Van Wie said, “and I think by the end of the rotation we have definitely implemented several lessons in how we conduct resupply in a contested environment like that.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of those is making sure resupply assets move just as much as the units do and another is simply making sure projections for supplies needed are accurate, he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
International interoperability<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Van Wie said his battalion has also learned a great deal in terms of how to work with multinational partners, whether it\u2019s making different equipment work side-by-side on the battlefield, having communications set up so everyone can talk or what allied nations can bring to the table to enhance the force.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For example, the force-on-force training at Hohenfels was the first opportunity for the brigade to become multinational, incorporating a Ukrainian company, a Romanian company, a Hungarian battalion and an Albanian light infantry company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The brigade refined and validated an effective, interoperable communications package with the allied nations there and got a sense of what each country could bring to the table or where the U.S. Army could enhance allies\u2019 capabilities, Van Wie said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Romanians and Ukrainians were effective in bolstering dismounted capabilities, including clearance operations in thick vegetation where tanks can\u2019t go or conducting reconnaissance and clearance through urban centers within the training course in advance of a tank company.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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