Meanwhile at Hurlburt Field, Fla., more than 1,900 special operations forces and support personnel, as well as conventional U.S. military forces and partner nations the United Kingdom and Poland, arrived for Emerald Warrior, a 10-day exercise that began on Feb. 28, 2012.
U.S. Air Force Special Operations Weather Teams participate in a training scenario on a CH-47 Chinook during Emerald Warrior, Hurlburt Field, Fla., March 7, 2012. U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Clay Lancaster
In an operational area that spanned three states and covered more than 1.5 million acres, Emerald Warrior was a combined tactical and operational level irregular warfare exercise. It emphasized intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, joint close air support, tactical airlift, COIN, urban operations, civilian casualty avoidance, information operations, language, and the battlefield integration of SOF, conventional forces, international military forces, and interagency and nongovernmental organizations.
Air Force Col. Bruce Taylor directed the exercise. “Our big 5-meter target right now is pre-deployment training for special operations forces – that’s both the air side and the ground side,” he said. “These guys are getting ready to go to war. Some of these guys will be deploying out very shortly and we want to get them a taste of what they might see here in the coming months.”
The advantage of training in such a large area enables the participants to practice operations in a wide variety of terrains and conditions. “Short of combat, I don’t think I’ve seen the combat environment replicated with this amount of realism and this amount of actual free-play,” Taylor said.
Coalition service members with Combined Task Force Spartan provide security for their teams during a capabilities demonstration for King Abdullah II of Jordan May 16, 2012, as part of exercise Eager Lion 2012 at the King Abdullah II Special Operations Training Center in Amman, Jordan. Eager Lion is a U.S. Central Command-directed, irregular warfare-themed exercise focusing on missions the United States and its coalition partners might perform in support of global contingency operations. DoD photo by Spc. Samantha Parks, U.S. Army
Taylor added that partner-nation participation is an important aspect of Emerald Warrior. “[I]t’s actually an important idea in our national security … because that’s what we’re going to use in the real world. It builds trust in the international community, and it helps us prosecute the war more effectively. …”
An even larger exercise took place in May: Eager Lion 12. More than 11,000 personnel from 19 countries participated in the exercise that took place in Jordan. Eager Lion is a multinational irregular warfare exercise designed to strengthen military-to-military relationships and interoperability through a joint, whole-of-government approach.
The scenario in Eager Lion 12 called for the establishment and running of a displaced persons camp, containing about 75 people, by Jordanian and Lebanese armed forces advised by the U.S. military.
Meanwhile, in Nicaragua, Special Operations Command South (SOCSOUTH) conducted the Joint Combined Exchange Training event, a monthlong exercise (April 15-May15) designed to hone the skills of Special Warfare Combatant-craft Crewmen assigned to SEAL Team 18 and train jointly with members of Nicaragua’s Naval Special Operations Detachment. “This experience has been very good for us because we have learned critical combat skills … and how to conduct boat interdictions,” said Nicaraguan 1st Lt. Vicente Roberto Baltodano, adding that the experience was so good that he hoped the next session would be for “two or three months” and not just one.
Fuerzas Comando is a skills competition and leadership seminar organized by U.S. Southern Command. 2012’s sponsor was the Colombian army, and the event, held in June, was based at the Colombian National Training Center at Fort Tolemaida in west central Colombia. The eight-day competition featured participants from 21 countries in the Western Hemisphere, with the United States serving as execution agent for the exercise.
A member of the U.S. special operations forces competes in the rifle qualification event for Fuerzas Comando, June 7, 2012, at the Colombian National Training Center in Tolemaida, Colombia. DoD photo by Sgt. Karen Kozub, U.S. Army
“The focus of these competitions is to test the abilities of special forces soldiers,” said Lt. Col. Juan Carlos Vargas Carvajal, operations officer for the Colombian Joint Special Forces Command and officer in charge of this year’s events. The testing was arduous. “After eight days of competition the participants are physically exhausted,” said Maj. Juan Carlos Blanco of the Colombian army.
At the end of the competition, Colombia, for the fifth time, emerged the winner. Ecuador was second and Uruguay third.
“Fuerzas Comando is an important opportunity for us to demonstrate the role the U.S. plays in linking special operations forces in the region and improving our capabilities and sharing ideas on how to face common threats like dangerous non-state actors,” said Commander, Special Operations Command South Rear Adm. Thomas L. Brown.