Immediate Response '06
Forces from the U.S. 1st Armored Division, the Romanian 21st Infantry Regiment "Red Scorpions," and the Bulgarian 61st Stryama Mechanized Brigade combined to support U.S. Army, Europe's theater engagement program, which increased NATO interoperability through combined exercises among partner nations. Throughout the weeklong exercise, which also included maneuvers in Romania, two themes resonated: realism and cooperation.
Immediate Response's main objective was to improve training and to participate in joint coalition operations. Interoperability with NATO forces is of paramount importance. Cooperation at headquarters level illustrates the command-and-control level view of combined forces interacting. But when it gets down to boots-on-the-ground territory, "combined" means Soldiers - no matter their nationality - fighting alongside each other against a common enemy. During various training scenarios, U.S., Bulgarian and Romanian troops integrated into three platoons, built from one squad from each country. Each platoon was led by a commander from another country. This setup was the basic unit structure for those engaged in the exercise.
Training events were the catalyst of IR '06. Partnership training for IR '06 kicked off with a weapons familiarization exchange. The U.S. Soldiers trained their NATO counterparts on common U.S. weaponry: M-9 pistol, M-16 assault rifle, M-240B medium-machine gun, M-249 automatic-weapon and M-19 grenade machine gun. Conversely, the eastern Europeans educated their U.S. military brethren on AK-47 assault rifles, the PKM general-purpose machine gun and the RPK machine gun.
Weapons familiarization was just the first building block emphasized during Immediate Response. Other modules included military operations in urban terrain, convoy maneuvers, an air assault mission and a raid on a hostile village. With a trio of armies that bring an assortment of strategies, planners took a "crawl-walk-and-run approach". Before training, combined platoons were divided into nine teams, each with three Soldiers from every country. Although platoon members spoke different languages, communication wasn't a barrier. To ensure the troops responded as if every movement mattered, the 43 JMRC members brought along an exercise warfare tool that puts troops on the front line. It's called the Deployable Instrumentation System, Europe, a technology based on the Multiple Integrated Laser Engagement System, which detects when a Soldier has been targeted and hit by a laser-fitted weapon. But while MILES simply lets users know they have gone from combatant to casualty, DISE displays how and why.
Getting U.S. Soldiers from Germany into Novo Selo, Bulgaria, the main hub of Immediate Response activities, was demanding. It meant moving 150 vehicles and pieces of equipment onto nearly 60 railcars in five trains, and transporting 800 troops on planes, trains and vehicles. The biggest challenge was logistics. The 123rd Main Support Battalion job was to ensure the task force had everything it needed. Food, fuel, bullets, tools, medicine. Actual exercise training lasted seven days, but it took a month's worth of logistics to make that week a success.
The last piece of Immediate Response's puzzle came together on the exercise's last day. Mission: chopper into Romania from Bulgaria to capture a suspected "terrorist." Swooping in via three Black Hawks, the combined force platoons hit the objective running. Within 15 minutes of their landing, the troops captured the "terrorist" and secured the area.
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