Since 9/11, the effort to combat terrorism throughout the world demonstrates the larger defense and security needs that have drawn the cooperation of many U.S. allies into a relationship that will continue to strengthen and endure. As a rapid response force for the U.K., 16 Air Assault shares a mission similar to the 82nd Airborne Division.

“We’re going to be there first on the doorstep to come with you,” said Shervington. “That’s what multinational interoperability is all about.”

“Paratroopers share much of the same qualities worldwide,” said Ryan. “We are pushing the boundaries of what we can do through seamless integration of that force under our mission command and testing the limits to see where they fail across all war fighting functions.”

Building that multinational contingency response capability is not as easy as parachuting into and conducting a field training exercise together. C-JOAX resolved some of the friction inherent to absorbing another country’s battle group into a BCT, but it also proposed other challenges.

“We’ve had great success but we’ve also had some areas where we’ve learned some lessons,” said Ryan. “Mission command is many times … our defeat mechanism. If we don’t do it well, we’re going to lose. We pay a lot of attention to it when we’re working our interoperability issues with the U.K.”

The commander of 3 PARA agreed that it takes much more than just discussions and observations. Both forces have to get their hands dirty with rigorous, complex training and subordinate commanders have to execute successfully.

“I can’t even begin to describe to you the amount we’ve taken away from operational lessons about getting into the fight, to tactical lessons about winning the fight, and sustaining the fight,” said Shervington.

“De-confliction does not equal interoperability,” said Shervington. “We smashed both organizations together onto one airfield, for one JFE, for one mission set, for a whole series of subsequent tasks, so that I could prosecute all of the mission sets he asked me to. That’s interoperability,” he said. “And that’s generated a whole bunch of issues that we need to resolve.”

While challenges indeed lie ahead, Ryan seemed optimistic of the future of the interoperability program and what it will take to strengthen and solidify the capability.

“Paratroopers share much of the same qualities worldwide,” said Ryan. “We are pushing the boundaries of what we can do through seamless integration of that force under our mission command and testing the limits to see where they fail across all war fighting functions.”

True to the tenets of the interoperability program, Shervington is on the same page as the task force commander.

“I can’t even begin to describe to you the amount we’ve taken away from operational lessons about getting into the fight, to tactical lessons about winning the fight, and sustaining the fight,” said Shervington. “Across those three areas, the list is long on both sides … where we both compliment each other so well.”

The final, major mission of the exercise put the Brigade’s interoperability to the test with the placement of a company from the 2nd BCT’s 2nd Battalion, 325th Airborne Infantry Regiment and various Army enablers under Shervington’s command and in support of 3 PARA. The battle group assaulted a staunchly defended enemy training facility and subsequently recovered a high-value target.

“Every step of this 24-hour operation, we had American call signs involved in mission execution,” said Shervington. “In order to achieve that mission, and to prosecute it successfully, I could only do it with a series of U.S. combat enablers, a rifle company, [human intelligence] enablers, tactical [psychological operations] teams, and [expeditionary digital support liaison teams].”

“When you combine all of those enablers, plus the aviation element to get us into the fight, and add that to 3 PARA and what we bring to the fight, and you have a very, very capable and powerful force able to achieve the full mission set.”