In an exclusive report, CDR’s Senior Staff Writer, Joetey Attariwala, traveled to Latvia to cover Exercise Silver Arrow, a 2-week capstone training event which serves as the Combat Readiness Evaluation (CREVAL) for NATO’s Multinational Battle Group in Latvia, for which Canada is the framework nation.
Exercise Silver Arrow is the commonly used name for the Canadian-led Multinational Battle Group’s Combat readiness evaluation, which is encompassed within the Latvian-led Exercise NAMEJS 2024. NAMEJS is organized in collaboration with the NATO Multinational Division North Headquarters. Participating in NAMEJS are allied soldiers from the United States, Estonia, and Lithuania, and NATO multinational battle groups as part of the Land Forces Mechanized Infantry Brigade, the NATO Multinational Brigade Headquarters in Latvia, the NATO Force Integration Unit Latvia, and the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) Task Force Latvia. The NAMEJS exercise is supported by the Joint Expeditionary Force and representatives from various NATO headquarters.
Exercise Silver Arrow 2024 was held at the Camp Ādaži military training area in Kadaga, Latvia. The purpose of the exercise is to train and evaluate the combat ability and integration of the Canadian-led Battle Group, including a Danish Infantry Battalion, into the Latvian Mechanized Infantry Brigade.
The Battle Group is evaluated on several criteria to ensure it continues to achieve NATO standards, and is able to operate as an efficient and capable defensive element in the region.
During the exercise, members of the Battle Group trained in Command-and-Control procedures, operational planning and execution, Battle Group offensive and defensive tactics, and integration of Allied NATO nations.
In this year’s edition of Exercise Silver Arrow, approximately 800 newly arrived Danish soldiers acted as the “OPFOR” (Opposing Force) — in other words, the Danes played the enemy and “attacked” forces that primarily consisted of Canadian, Latvian, Spanish, Italian, Polish and American soldiers, among others.
The exercise was orchestrated through the Exercise Control (EXCON) facility which was staffed primarily by experts from the Canadian Maneuver Training Centre (CMTC), a subunit of the Canadian Army Doctrine and Training Centre. CMTC’s mandate is to facilitate the design and execution of immersive collective training opportunities for the CAF, and to provide a realistic and challenging full spectrum, contemporary operating environment which enables learning and confirmation for designated high readiness forces.
“Canada uses the Latvian led exercise as a vehicle to complete the NATO combat readiness evaluation,” said Major David Nelson, Lead Planner for Exercise Silver Arrow, CMTC. “We create an exercise construct that will allow the Battle Group to go through all of the operational functions that it has to be assessed on. CMTC provides the core of the CREVAL team that conducts the evaluation of the Canadian-led multinational Battle Group on behalf of NATO. We have Observer Controller Trainers [OCT] and umpires out with all of the maneuver elements that are in the training area, and they observe what the Blue Force and OPFOR does, who they are shooting at as they are interacting, and then communicate to assess casualties from battle damage from those engagements. It’s a very chaotic flow, which is why we have a fairly large team out there to enable the exercise control part of it to ensure the primary training audience [PTA] is getting feedback on their tactics.”
MEMBER NATIONS & THEIR CONTRIBUTIONS
In the context of Exercise Silver Arrow 2024, each member of the NATO Battle Group contributes in their own way. For example, Albania provided an Explosive Ordnance Disposal and counter-IED (Improvised Explosive Device) capability, so specific training injects were created so that they were able to exercise their capabilities.
“We have duty officers who monitor the training audiences communications, both the digital for the Danish and the voice comms for the multinational Battle Group, and they also monitor the communications of the OCTs who are with those elements to build a ground truth of what is happening and where,” Maj. Nelson told CDR. “Everyone always has their own point of view as they go through a training scenario, so what we do with our OCT’s is amalgamate an honest, unbiased feedback for the PTA about what has happened, and then pull out lessons from that.”
“One of the biggest reasons we do this training in Latvia as opposed to back home is because the Battle Group and the Battle Group Headquarters are multinational and they don’t get formed until they are out here — so that team needs to be formed and it needs to work together before you can get to the point of doing the combat readiness evaluation for NATO,” said Maj. Nelson. “Doing the exercise here is important because it also provides a message of deterrence.”
THE 5 BIG PLAYERS
Leading the Blue Force is Lieutenant-Colonel Jean-François Labonté, Commander of the Multinational Battle Group in Latvia. “The nature of the Battle Group is multinational, so that means we have to do our Combat Readiness Evaluation here in Latvia. From the moment we arrive we have to do preparation, and we need to review SOP’s [Standard Operating Procedures] to bring everyone together. The five big players for Exercise Silver Arrow are the Canadian, Spanish and Italian Company’s, along with Canadian and Polish Tank Squadrons — those are the biggest elements of the Blue Force which encompasses all of the multinational partners. Integration can be a challenge, but that’s why we exercise our capabilities together. I know that there are clear training objectives, but how we get there is driven by what the OPFOR does. The training area here in Latvia is one of the best in the Baltics — we are focused on high readiness here, and we are extending our training by engaging with other Battle Groups in the region, like Estonia and Poland.”
There is no doubt that high level Canadian Army training is now best conducted in Europe. The mission in Latvia is to deter, and if necessary to defend, so training along with Allies, learning the geography and establishing logistics are all essential aspects to the remit of the Canadian-led multinational Battle Group. It is for these reasons that since 2017, CMTC has been projecting its exercise control and planning to the point of need, specifically in Latvia.
EVOLVING TRAINING
“Right now, the place that we need to do this training is in Latvia, so we’ve designed ourselves internally to project our capabilities here,” said Maj. Nelson. “We are looking to evolve the training in Latvia to become more in line with the Maple Resolve style training which means larger and more intense exercises that will meet our internal training goals within the Canadian Army.”
Exercise Silver Arrow was a critical combat readiness evaluation for the Canadian-led multinational Battle Group and was the final test before the Battle Group’s integration into the NATO Multinational Brigade. All told, the force-on-force exercise helped further develop interoperability between NATO allies while integrating their systems and standard operating procedures with one another so they are collectively prepared for future missions that contribute to the defence of NATO’s eastern flank.
Joetey Attariwala is CDR’s Senior Staff Writer
