American Army trainers were part of JOINTEX 2013 with 1st Canadian Division headquarters, as part of a series of nation-wide joint training and readiness events designed to change how the Canadian forces train, develop and learn to prepare for future operations.
“It’s a mutual learning endeavor,” said Col. John Allred, Mission Command Training Program (MCTP) Chief of Operations Group A at the Combined Arms Center, which is part of U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command. “The whole point is to support our recurring partners, allies and NORTHCOM allies.”
This is the first time MCTP has provided support to Canada in an exercise of this type.
The point of JOINTEX is for the 1st Canadian Division to achieve a joint deployable command and control capability and improve its capabilities and procedures for Canada’s land-based operations at home and abroad. Canada began this effort as part of its defense strategy in 2009. The division has three main missions: humanitarian operations, non-combatant evacuations, and full spectrum operations such as those in Afghanistan.
The exercise allows Canadian Forces to further develop the way they replicate the contemporary and future operating environments in the live, virtual, and constructive training domains, simultaneously and in multiple locations. It also is to further the ability to conduct large-scale complex missions where land, sea, air and special forces work together under a single command.
The Stage 4 JOINTEX is a command post exercise, Allred said. His team provides training and mentoring as a third party neutral observer, holding an “objective mirror to the organization so they can see themselves.”
Additionally, MCTP brings best practices, ideas and ways of doing things that might to improve or smooth activities, he said. And as observers and coaches, they looking at doctrine, or how joint and NATO forces fight and “at key points ask leading questions, facilitate discussions with the commander and staff,” examine the lessons learned or done well, and the way ahead.
Allred said this is another way training and mentorship help, as it is helpful to see how others do things. “Another process could be more effective and more efficient.”
The United States uses mission command, the art of command, centered on a commander who moves through a cyclical process to understand, visualize, describe, direct, lead, and assess (UVDDLA) until the mission objectives are achieved.
U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Army Gen. Martin Dempsey said in a 2012 White Paper, “The ability to frame and reframe complex, ill-structured problems within the context of the operating environment is critical for any military commander.” And, importantly, “to implement mission command successfully, a shared understanding of the environment, problem, and strategic intent must exist with echelons above and below.”
1st Canadian Division Deputy Commander Air Force Brig.-Gen. Dave Wheeler said Canadian Forces have “always done those tasks, not necessarily under a standing division headquarters, and did do mission command before.”
Canadian Forces wanted to prepare earlier and more fully for current and future operations, thus the standing headquarters and the training program.
Allred said, “The more we work with partners, the better we work with them.” For example, the teams were about half and half Canadian-American. “The synergy of the whole is always better than the efforts of the one.”
Wheeler said he was an augmentee for the exercise, and a good example for the goal to “have everybody understand how operations would work from the headquarters perspective.”
There is a fair amount of experience in coalition headquarters but not necessarily to the extent one would want, so it’s always helpful to improve and find better ways to do things, he noted.
The MCTP effort has led to discussions of working together on the next phase of JOINTEX, and to potentially develop a long-term relationship, Allred said.
JOINTEX completes with Stage 5 in May and June with a field training exercise and Command Post exercise with live, virtual and constructive players and equipment. Stage 5 will exercise all components in a complex scenario designed to train participants to develop doctrine, TTPs to improve Canadian Forces’ ability to deliver integrated effects. Also, to exercise the Canadian national chain of command throughout the strategic, operational and tactical levels, it will replicate a coalition task force with Canadian leadership.
Wheeler said they want to learn as much as they can as a Combined Joint Inter-Agency Task Force (CJIATF) headquarters and try “to be as coordinated as possible and as prepared as possible for the next real world operation.”
JOINTEX is expected to continue on a regular basis.