A blanket of snow lies over the tanks, armored personnel carriers and fuel trucks, staged and ready for action at Camp Albertshof, Joint Multinational Readiness Center (JMRC), Hohenfels Training Area. Soldiers climb through the snow to a newly established tactical operations center and connect the command and control systems of the 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team (1ABCT), 1st Infantry Division (1ID.). Other soldiers outfit their vehicles and weapons with MILES gear, a system of sensors used to determine hits in a combat exercise. The snow obscures the details of the soldiers and their equipment as they work through the snowy dusk of day. It is difficult to see that they are not all of the same unit or even in the same nation’s military.
“Multinational military exercises not only sustain our readiness to conduct large-scale operations in a dynamic environment but are an important part of achieving interoperability with our unified allied partners,” said Maj. Gen. Adam Joks, Deputy Commanding General – Interoperability, V Corps. “This is a great opportunity for our Soldiers to train alongside their multinational counterparts across all warfighting functions and to gain valuable personal experience. Our Soldiers learn about the unique capabilities our allies bring to the table, and this allows them to share their experience to create a more lethal coalition.”
As the first hard push of winter settles over Bavaria, Germany, the soldiers take little notice. They work hard preparing to fight together. Units from many nations prepare to go into the field as part of Combined Resolve XVI (CBR XVI) and to affirm that, together, they will be victorious in any conflict. CBR XVI is a United States Army Europe and Africa (USAREUR-AF) directed, 7th Army Training Command (7ATC) conducted, JMRC hosted training event for 1ABCT from Nov. 17 to Dec. 20, 2021. The event is designed to evaluate and assess 1ABCT’s ability to conduct multinational operations in a multi-domain simulated battlespace.
The exercise features approximately 4,600 soldiers from Bulgaria, Georgia, Greece, Italy, Lithuania, Poland, Serbia, Slovenia, Ukraine, United Kingdom and the United States. The operations will be conducted by integrated battalions with multinational units operating under a unified command and control element allowing the U.S., its allies and partners to experience invaluable training alongside each other. Since April 2014, USAREUR-AF has led the Department of Defense’s European land efforts by bringing units based in the U.S. to Europe for nine months at a time, an effort known as Atlantic Resolve. These rotations train with allies and partners across Europe on an ongoing basis creating a unified front which serves to deter aggression in the region.
