The NATO Trident Juncture 2018: Norway
That's the best way to describe the NATO Trident Juncture exercises to those who aren't serving in the armed forces. Taking place over a huge public area of Norway, the hashtag-friendly "TRJE18" exercise saw around 50,000 participants from 31 nations come together to test their inter-operability, training and equipment in a whole new environment.
For the British Army, these tests started well before the exercise formally began, with an enormous convoy of military hardware driving from bases across the UK to Norway, via the Netherlands, Germany, Denmark and Sweden. Covering this type of distance in vehicles which were designed for, and have primarily only been used in, desert conditions was a huge concern for those involved. The sense of relief on arriving without leaving a trail of discarded armour across northern Europe was still evident days after the forces were in place.
Even so, snow and ice is not the natural home for the majority of the vehicles used, with lessons learnt at every point. The logistical issues caused by snow chains alone was enough to prove the exercise worthwhile, after struggles to fit them to the British Army Foxhound vehicles led to a number of issues, even causing one to be removed from the exercise after loose chains tore out the hydraulic lines at the start of a long drive.
Away from the armour and equipment, a key element of the Trident Juncture was to bring members of different national armed forces together, and build on the close operating relationship which NATO members aim to promote. Those with gaps in their knowledge sought advice from other nations while, at the simplest level, soldiers from across the world traded ration packs, explaining the highlights to savour and the meals to avoid from each regional selection.
Originating from the US, the "RoC" (Rehearsal of Concept) briefing is now a staple element of the British Army strategy planning techniques. With a number of repetitions and variations for the different ranks, soldiers who are about to be involved in a planned engagement are invited to see a live run-through of the plan, with senior members of each Regiment moving across an improvised map of the area like chess pieces, illustrating how the upcoming action should unfold.
Throughout these briefings, while the individual Companies explain their plans, others do their best to predict the movements of the opposition, through the use of intelligence and strategic knowledge. Combined, this gives those watching a real world idea of how the troop movements will occur, and which flashpoints, bottlenecks, attacks and withdrawals to look out for.
Despite the live exercise taking place with opposing forces mere kilometres up the road, soldiers of the British Army are still expected to shave every day. While the Norwegian Army stride into battle looking like extras from a Viking saga, the members of the Royal Irish were to be found buzzing away at their faces, as they hovered around their armoured vehicle wing mirrors, ready to meet the enemy with clean chins.
As all sides involved in the live exercise were firing only blank rounds, or flares to simulate rocket strikes, it was down to the NATO umpire team to monitor events and, to the best of their abilities, declare successes and failures where they saw them. Covering large areas of terrain in their Land Rovers, both sides of the battle provided their plans to the team, allowing them to be at the relevant place when and where an engagement should occur. From then, it became a case of following the action and judging when a force was overwhelmed, a tank had been disabled, or a soldier had been injured or killed. After any such declaration was made, they faced the task of laying where they were as their surviving colleagues either rushed to "save" their lives, or picked their uniform clean of vital ammunition and tools for the next battle down the line. After the front-line moved away, the dead would rise and travel into the woods to sit, smoke and chat as the gunfire receded into the distance.
As the subheading suggested above, journalists and umpires working at the Trident Juncture followed the action as if in a computer game "God Mode", walking through firefights and wandering through minefields without fear of injury. Most of the soldiers in attendance could ignore those covering the exercise, which only added to the surreal feeling of standing in front of a heavy machine gunner as he fired at the opposing force across the valley.
Acknowledgements
My thanks must go to Ed Low at the Ministry of Defence for his trust and support during my time in Norway. My thanks and appreciation also go to Major Paul Martin and the Royal Irish Regiment's B Company, who allowed me to step into their daily lives and record how they eat, sleep, live and work when deployed. Spending time with the soldiers of B Company was a genuine pleasure.
