Exercises are among the most, important indicators of military seriousness, , as even minor details of military operations are vital to their success, including logistical details. Creating the necessary conditions and providing the required support for an exercise like Defender-Europe 20 is clearly a much broader challenge and task than just military logistics, and goes well beyond just the military domain. The drills seem to be the largest military exercises in Europe in 25 years. How much weight can vital bridges carry, are they strong enough to support a heavily armored brigade crossing from the opposite side of the river? In fact, COVID-19 demonstrated the vital role that our armed forces can play in support of civilian efforts in a health crisis, not just in a military one – from airlifting medical supplies and patients to setting up field hospitals and providing disinfection and decontamination teams. 21 European model shown. Much has already been written about Trump’s policies — or at least his political statements — which have preoccupied NATO’s European constituents for the past three years. Nowadays, all Allies recognise the interdependence of the military and private sector. Despite its adaptation, the exercise continues and is providing the United States, its Allies and NATO many valuable lessons on the movement of forces and equipment across the Atlantic and within Europe. Despite uncertainty about Trump’s policy toward both NATO and Russia, military exercises are a vital means to gauge the extent of any defense commitment, such as that of the US to NATO’s self-defense clause, Article 5. With permanent All-Wheel Drive, two-speed transfer and unibody architecture, it’s ready for your next adventure. Defender Europe 20, which was to involve nearly 40,000 US and European troops in drills across Central and Eastern Europe in late spring, was cancelled in mid-March, about six … The 504th CSC deployed to Poland in support of DEFENDER-Europe 20. ” air assault exercises with the 82nd Airborne division as part of Defender Europe-20. In the past, the infrastructure that was important to the military – such as railways, ports, airfields, national energy grids and hospitals – was mainly state-owned and consequently could easily be made available to the military. It is the first big test of Allies’ ability to support large-scale movement across the Atlantic and mainland Europe in recent years. Whatever the long-term impact of the coronavirus, the Allies remain committed to improving their resilience through civil preparedness so that they are able to recover from strategic shocks and surprise, while maintaining the ability to continue to support NATO’s deterrence and defence posture. How long would it take for a European country to fold once power, water, telecoms, fuel, banking and supermarket distribution systems were comprehensively disrupted? In 1988, 125,000 personnel deployed across the Atlantic within ten days under “REFORGER” (Return of Forces to Germany), the US commitment to reinforce in-place forces rapidly and robustly should the need arise. Its purpose was both to practice and demonstrate the US Army’s ability rapidly to deploy an entire division — not just from the continental United States to Europe through Dutch ports, but also further across Europe to Poland and the Baltic countries. But in the last decades, the ownership of state infrastructure began to shift steadily into the hands of the private sector, which therefore began to play a much more crucial role in crisis management. www.fpri.org Copyright © 2000–2020. If it cannot cross easily, that affects the conduct of subsequent operations. When considering the significance of Defender-Europe 20 to NATO, it is important for context to understand how we operated during the Cold War. The basis of this dilemma is that deterrence is non-linear and that the would-be deterree — Russia — must first recognize that what NATO is doing is actually deterrence. Defender-Europe 20’s mission to train the ability to move large number of troops and equipment across the Atlantic and across Europe is important to the Alliance because it tests essential procedures and skillsets while demonstrating unified purpose. DEFENDER will involve a number of real pilots to evaluate, validate and demonstrate how and to what extent the DEFENDER framework will enable an effective holistic cyber-physical security ... IEEE ICMEW Virtual Workshop July 6, 2020; Subscribe. Gareth Thomas, Peter Williams and Yanitsa Dyakova work on Resilience, Enablement and Logistics in NATO’s Defence Policy and Planning Division. This requires a whole-of-government approach, including through national plans, with cross-government cooperation of civil and military actors, in peacetime, in crisis, and in conflict.”. Exercises help develop this understanding. Getting the ground ready for such deployments means being prepared and flexible to be able to exercise the logistics effectively. This excitement marks the beginning of “Defender Europe 2020”, the largest military exercises to be staged in Europe in over 25 years. Although USAREUR had been practicing and demonstrating the ability to deploy and rotate brigades on a continental scale over the past few years, relocating an entire division involves a substantially higher level of difficulty and marks a major distinction from US military operations in Iraq, which have been only brigade size. The United States had even planned to practice “. Some 30 years after the last REFORGER, the new security environment is more unpredictable, and so our planning has had to become more flexible and immediately responsive. Since the 1993 demise of Reforger, NATO generally and the US Army Europe more specifically have gradually lost not just that institutional knowledge, but in some cases even the logistical capability actually to make similar deployments. All necessary institutional knowledge and expertise was already in place — how units would reach the eastern seaports of the US, through which ones they would cross the Atlantic, at which ports they would disembark, how they would move from those ports deeper into Europe, etc. They may not easily relate to the importance of military and civilian preparedness and the part that all aspects of society played in our collective efforts to maintain peace and security. If any serious misstep occurs along the way, the frontline inevitably suffers. (U.S. Army photo by Sgt. “Defender 2020,” the largest NATO exercise in Europe for 25 years, has gotten under way in recent weeks. Practice will never make response options perfect but events such as these go a long way to proving that we can do what we need to do in a timely way. Defender Europe 20 is a massive, U.S.-led multinational training exercise scheduled to take place from April to May 2020, with personnel and equipment movements occurring from February through July 2020. Military operations rely not just on local infrastructure, but also on an. Allies’ ability to move their forces rapidly will be decisive in determining NATO’s speed of response. Military Exercise Defender Europe-20 was Rolled Back: What Does It Mean for the Baltic States? Despite the need to adjust the scale of exercise activities, the time spent in planning and implementing it was invaluable. The US, with NATO, routinely conducts military exercises all over Europe, especially since the Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014 — exercises, as destabilizing. , particularly cyber activities directed at Russia — mostly by encouraging the Department of Defense to minimize disclosure of operational details. Defender Europe-20, as the largest deployment exercise of US forces to Europe since Reforger, would have represented a major attempt to regain the institutional knowledge of how to conduct such deployments in Europe, as well as to test the local infrastructure. Lithuania had begun. This will inform our thinking about the importance to the Alliance of, among other things, resilient supply chains, robust logistics, assured access to critical infrastructure and strengthened civil-military interaction. NATO member countries pool resources to charter special aircraft to transport troops, equipment and supplies across the globe. Although Defender-Europe 20 was constrained due to precautionary measures to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, it has still provided Allies with a great opportunity to test their ability to receive and support large numbers of troops and equipment, including heavy armour (such as tanks, armoured personnel carriers and heavy military engineering equipment) and to move them through their territories. In many countries, younger generations are not familiar with events of this scale or the characteristics of ‘normal’ life in the shadow of the Cold War. If the logistical capacity to deploy and employ force is nonexistent, the threat to employ that force cannot, by definition, be credible, and no adversary would need to allow itself to be deterred. Exercise DEFENDER-Europe 20 is a U.S.-led multinational exercise, including NATO's participation. However, there is no outward indication that Russia realizes this, but instead apparently sees all of NATO’s actions as inherently destabilizing — if not outright aggressive — against Russia. What is published in NATO Review does not necessarily represent the official position or policy of member governments, or of NATO. reveal that Defender Europe-20 would have been directed by the Department of the Army and led by US Army Europe (USAREUR). They knew the exact locations of their deployment positions, which pre-positioned stocks and equipment were available, how their echeloned support systems would function, and what support their host nations would provide for them based on clear strategic, operational and tactical level arrangements. The essence of flexibility is in the mind of the commander; the substance of flexibility is in logistics. Lukas Milevski is a Baltic Sea Fellow in the Eurasia Program at FPRI. DEFENDER-Europe 20 was set to be the biggest deployment for an exercise in 25 years, with 20,000 soldiers deploying from the U.S. and training with 17,000 allies. An earlier version of this article, published on March 30, 2020, noted that Defender Europe 2020 was cancelled. We must also ensure access to all necessary transport capabilities and infrastructure – including those in civilian and commercial hands – to enable unimpeded movement of forces by air, sea, road and rail. Between January and March 2020, US Army Europe deployed approximately 6,000 military personnel from the United States to Europe. Furthermore, it calls for a coordinated whole-of-government approach, not only in a crisis but also in peacetime, to support training, exercises and for general preparedness and readiness to defend our combined territories. Diverse civilian and military actors have worked closely together to enable the unimpeded deployment of forces by air, sea, road and rail. What is the capacity of the road and rail infrastructure? DEFENDER. Defender Europe 2020 is an exercise of strategic defense and its objective is to counter a ‘Russian invasion.’ Since there is no indication that Moscow would ever seek to invade Europe, it’s clear that these exercises are anti-Russian in nature, and are yet another planned provocation against Russia. Demonstrating the ability to move Allied forces into and across Europe at speed, and sustain them, was an important part of the exercise. Besides merely surveying and testing local infrastructure, Defender Europe-20 had fortuitously also spurred further development of that infrastructure in anticipation of the exercise. About DEFENDER-Europe 20. Activities are planned to occur from February through to July 2020. Poland has also actively and ambitiously developed its infrastructure to accommodate an increased US military presence such as Defender Europe-20 and further similar exercises. They also adopted a "Commitment to enhance resilience", agreeing to fulfil seven baseline requirements for national resilience, including: Assured continuity of government and critical government services, including the ability to make decisions, communicate and enforce them in a crisis; Resilient energy supply, including the diversification of import routes, suppliers and energy resources, and the interconnectivity of energy networks; Coping with the uncontrolled movement of large numbers of people; Although not all of these are being tested, Defender-Europe 20 is an excellent vehicle to develop the civil-military interface and to connect civil preparedness through resilience with the ability to provide effective and robust host nation support. The robust host nation support that reinforcing Allies are relying upon for this exercise, such as that provided by Belgium, Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands, is a model we can follow for the future. Unter den 37.000 Soldatinnen und Soldaten werden über 20.000 sein, die aus Kontinental-Amerika mitsamt Material und Fahrzeugen in West-Europa ankommen und danach durch 10 Länder gen Osten fahren. Exercises also ensure that the Army has in place the appropriate personnel and institutional logistical knowledge to effect and sustain a substantial military deployment. In response to the COVID-19, DEFENDER-Europe 20 was modified in size and scope in March when movement from the U.S. to Europe was stopped and some linked exercises were cancelled. But the clear message is: the Alliance is ready and able to project its forces. It has been vitally informative across many military and civil support functions, and lessons we have identified and are learning from the movement of the forces that arrived in Europe as part of this exercise will feed into NATO’s ongoing enablement efforts. from Vilnius to the Pabrade training area in eastern Lithuania, a spur of the existing railway line from Vilnius to Latvia, with the intention of completing it in time for the exercises. Activities of this type allow our service men and women to train with a realistic and challenging scenario, and to practice their procedures and manoeuvres, which are integral to their readiness and interoperability. © Spri.eus. Enablement means Allies are able to maintain high levels of preparedness and to put in place the arrangements and infrastructure required to move units, as rapidly as possible, to wherever needed. United States Army Europe and Africa official homepage. In the event of a crisis, initial elements of NATO’s high readiness forces are ready to deploy to support an Ally, within hours, with a reinforcement force following closely at their heels. The dilemma is: to act to reinforce or be able to reinforce the Baltic in case of war and thus provoke some unwanted Russian reaction that falls beyond the scope of what NATO expects in a deterrence relationship, or not to do so, and gamble, entirely on Russia’s forbearance in the Baltic Sea region, the credibility of NATO as a fully defensive military alliance. The US Army has not operated or practiced operations on a divisional scale in Europe for 25 years, but is now actively considering and planning a return to this enhanced level of operations as a response to Russia. Defender-Europe 2020 is the deployment of a division-size combat-credible force from the United States to Europe. Lessons learned will further strengthen Allied readiness and resilience in a challenging security environment. Exercise Defender Europe 20 is a US Army led joint, multinational training exercise that includes approximately 2500 UK service personnel who will deploy from the UK and participate in the series of linked activities that comprise Defender Europe 20. Almost 37,000 soldiers and officers from 18 countries were expected to take part, with about 20,000 of them from the United States alone. The Defender Europe-20 exercise had just begun, in Western media when many of its activities. Allies agreed to ensure that the necessary legislation, processes and procedures to facilitate rapid movement of personnel and equipment, including diplomatic clearances, are in place and fully implemented. © NATO, Most satellites serve multiple civilian, commercial or security functions. The ongoing work to ensure Allies can support large-scale, rapid movement of troops and equipment is known in NATO-speak as the ‘Enablement of SACEUR’s (Supreme Allied Commander Europe) Area of Responsibility’. Strategists will … Lukas Milevski. The context which lends significance to the exercise is, inevitably, US President Donald Trump’s variably questionable statements regarding both NATO and Russia. NATO nations have undertaken a wide range of measures to accelerate the movement of their forces and equipment. So overall, despite the fact that it was modified as a result of COVID-19, the US-led exercise Defender-Europe 20 is strategically significant to NATO. © US Army photo by Jason Johnston, A diver repairs a submarine internet cable. U.S. Army Europe and Africa trains and leads the U.S. Army Forces in the European and African theater in support of U.S. European Command, U.S. African Command and the Department of the Army. DEFENDER-Europe 20 was designed as a deployment exercise to build strategic readiness in support of the U.S. National Defense Strategy and NATO deterrence objectives. Designed like no other. Likewise, deploying military forces relies heavily on civil resources, such as communications, energy, transport, food, water and medical resources. Many of the planned activities and troop activities were halted, though some exercises were modified in size and scope. It is the largest deployment of U.S.-based forces to Europe in more than 25 years with 20,000 soldiers deployed directly from the U.S. to Europe.” It has been suggested that logistics are the. A whole suite of linked exercises have also been scrubbed along with Defender Europe-20, including Dynamic Front, Saber Strike, and Swift Response. It is clear that there can be no civil – or military – preparedness without effective cooperation with the private sector and that it is imperative for NATO and Allies to ensure the necessary arrangements are in place. Due to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020, US Army Europe took a prudent decision to modify Exercise Defender-Europe 20 in size and scope to protect forces and local populations. or rolled back due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. It is the largest deployment of U.S.-based forces to Europe in more than 25 years with 20,000 soldiers deployed directly from the U.S. to Europe. In coordination with Allies and partners, US Army Europe also moved soldiers and equipment from multiple European ports and airports to training areas in Germany and Poland.