UNITED
States forces were pleased with the largest joint war-fighting
exercise they have ever held – a three-week, $250 million
operation that involved 13,500 military and civilian personnel
battling in nine live exercise ranges across the US and in double
that many computer simulations.
Results from the mock combat exercise, conducted in August, are
expected to shape planning against future adversaries.
Wing Commander Gavin Small, Liaison Officer to the United States
Joint Forces Command, said Millennium Challenge 2002 (MC 02) was
a major joint integrating experiment “designed to assess
the ‘how’ of a Rapid Decisive Operations concept”.
Officers praised new airborne communications that allowed commanders
to stay in touch with far-flung fighting forces as never before.
General William F. Kernan, head of the United States Joint Forces
Command that organised and operated the war games, said the exercise
showed the importance of a Standing Joint Force Headquarters to
coordinate the efforts of all the armed services during wartime.
“The idea is to avoid the ad hoc nature of past wartime command
headquarters, thrown together in times of emergency. The standing
headquarters would provide future commanders with a skill-set
of people with military specialties and a solid appreciation for
the complexities of the region,” he said.
Joint American forces – Air Force, Army, Marines, Navy and
Special Operations – took part in a simulated Persian Gulf
conflict.
Australia looks set to participate, along with other nations,
in a post “Millennium Challenge Multinational Symposium”
later in the year.
