US Army Europe Leads Simulated Warfighting:Combined Resolve XVI Forms NATO Allies and Partners

Some 4600 troops from Bulgaria;Georgia;Greece;Italy;Lithuania;Poland;Serbia;Slovenia;Ukraine;the UK and the US are currently staging combat drills in snowy Bavaria,Germany's Hohenfels Training Area.The exercise is to evaluate and assess the 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team,1st Infantry Division's ability to conduct multinational operations in a multi-domain simulated battlespace.The drills began 17 November 2021 and run till 20 December.They are large-scale operations in a dynamic environment geared at achieving interoperability with unified Allies and Partners.The ultimate goal is to affirm that,together,they will be victorious in any conflict. The multinational counterparts are testing their skills across all warfighting functions,thus creating a more lethal coalition.According to Major General Adam Joks,Deputy Commanding General-Interoperabilty V Corps: By conducting combined operations with our Allies,our Soldiers learn how to work together effectively to achieve tactical objectives...integrating systems,procedures and building lasting relationships with our Allies.* Units based in the US are brought to Europe for nine months at a time in support of Operation Atlantic Resolve,a response to Russian aggression against Ukraine in 2014.This creates a unified front which serves to deter aggression in the region.CBR XVI represents US commitment to a free,democratic,safe and secure Europe by maintaining readiness to dominate large-scale operations in the European theatre.* A tactical operations centre was set up to support brigade leadership during the combined arms operations in the complex battlespace.Procedures for Command and Control across multinational formations,such as the Bulgarian Land Forces and their BTR-60 armoured personnel carriers,during the field portion of the exercise.*

Army Exercise Agile Spirit 2019 In The Country Georgia - 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team,1st Infantry Division

US Army Artillery Thunders in Anbar Province,Iraq - training not primary focus at air base

On 27 June 2016,US Soldiers blasted shells from an M109 A6 Paladin howitzer,which is a very powerful self-propelled artillery piece,at Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant militants during a fire mission at Al-Taqqadum Air Base in Habbaniya,Anbar Province.This illustrates the wide-ranging role of US artillery in the anti-ISIL Operation Inherent Resolve:it is not limited to the Mosul recapture build-up in the north of the country;now it is clearly being utilised to suppress ISIL activity in Anbar in Western Iraq as well.*
The air base is a joint environment,home to Task Force Al Taqqadum Advise and Assist site,with all four Pentagon branches of the military represented,along with Allies Italian and Australian troops and their Iraqi counterparts of the 8th,10th and 16th Iraqi Army Divisions;the Iraqi Anbar Operations Centre,or AOC;Anbar National Police;and the Iraqi Counterintelligence Service.Still classified as an expeditionary airfield,it is officially a US Marine Corps base served with a complete range of support by the US Air Force's 321st Contingency Response Element in combination with Marines from Special Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force-Crisis Response-Central Command,who will handle long-term security and logistics at the base,once the 321st withdraws.*
TFTQ,as the task force is known,operates out of Camp Manion at Taqqadum.It is an Operation Inherent Resolve force of Marines and Sailors from II Marine Expeditionary Force;the Marine augments from SPMAGTF-CR-CC;and members of the US Army's 1st Infantry Division.Its mission is to advise and assist the Iraqi Security Forces in the Ramadi area of Anbar,which,despite protracted combat operations and some notable successes,remains a somewhat unstable and contested zone.For example,as late as 25 July,Khalidiya Island in Eastern Ramadi was still the target of an extensive military operation by the ISF against ISIL strongholds and headquarters on the island.Also on that day,the ISF were reinforcing to counter reported plans by ISIL to converge on Haditha district from three directions west of Ramadi.*
To assist,the US Marines are embedded as full time advisors with the AOC,helping coordinate airstrikes and counterstrikes based on Iraqi reports of encounters with the enemy such as firefights;and intelligence data.USMC Colonel Christopher J. Douglas,TFTQ commander,said the assistance we provide is specifically in the form of intelligence,surveillance and reconnaissance flights and air support and strikes that are provided by coalition aircraft.All strikes and operations are approved by Iraqi leaders.*
The environment that we train in now is not a learning environment;we are very much in an operational environment where training is not the primary focus,said a USMC primary advisor to the 8th Iraqi Army Division.Still,they have conducted artillery,communications,medical,explosive ordnance disposal and engineering training as the occasion presented itself.*