USJFCOM: Joint fires team, Army's BCTP team prepare corps headquarters for deployment

Joint fires team, Army's BCTP team prepare corps headquarters for deployment

Personnel from U.S. Joint Forces Command's Joint Fires Integration and Interoperability Team (JFIIT) and the Army's Battle Command Training Program (BCTP) worked with the Joint Warfighting Center's Deployable Training Team to enhance the joint fires knowledge of the U.S. Army's I Corps as part of Unified Endeavor 09-1.

By Casey Bain
JFIIT, USJFCOM

(FT. LEWIS, Wash. - Oct. 28, 2008) -- U.S. Joint Forces Command (USJFCOM)'s Joint Fires Integration and Interoperability Team (JFIIT) and the Army's Battle Command Training Program (BCTP) joined forces here for Unified Endeavor (UE) 09-01 to prepare I Corps Headquarters to enhance its joint fires knowledge for its upcoming mission as Multinational Corps-Iraq headquarters early next year.

This mission rehearsal exercise, or MRX, running through Friday, prepares I Corps Headquarters and its subordinate staffs for operations in the complex political, military, and cultural environment as a future combined joint task force (CJTF) in Iraq.

The BCTP task force, from Ft. Leavenworth, Kan., joins USJFCOM's Joint Warfighting Center (JWFC) and JFIIT as the lead trainers for this event.

"The UE MRX is designed to help I Corps build a cohesive team that understands and is prepared for the operational and strategic environments in and around Iraq," said Army Lt. Col. Scott Wild, deputy commander for Operations Group Delta at BCTP.

"We provide subject matter experts across all warfighting functions and retired general officer senior mentors who have commanded at the highest levels within the military, said Wild. "Factor in our joint partners from USJFCOM, and we form a team that will collectively help the I Corps staff be prepared to respond to the key issues and challenges that they will face once they assume their mission in Iraq."

UE 09-01 MRX includes participants from all services and coalition partners from the United Kingdom and South Korea. This distributed, networked exercise occcurs at multiple locations including Ft. Lewis, Wash., Ft. Hood, Tex., Camp Lejeune, N.C., Hurlburt Field, Fla., the JWFC, Suffolk, Va., and the United Kingdom.

According to Navy Lt. Cmdr. Chris Olson, JFIIT's UE 09-01 MRX lead, "The JFIIT team enhances the CJTF staff's ability to synchronize their joint fires capabilities in Iraq and better understand their integration and interoperability requirements."

"Our goal here is to help the I Corps staff identify their seams within the joint fires mission area so they can improve the staff planning and targeting process to to fully leverage the resources and capabilities of their entire team," said Olson. "We want to help them learn how better to plan and integrate joint intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance and fires assets to increase their combat effectiveness and help them save lives."

Part of the JWFC's mission during this exercise is providing subject matter experts from their Deployable Training Team (DTT) and work with BCTP to enhance I Corps staff's training in a variety of warfighting functions.

"We work closely with BCTP and have a mutually beneficial relationship where we support these exercises to improve the realism, rigor, and experience of the training audience," said Air Force Maj. Gavin Marks, fires observer trainer, JWFC DTT. "We help units prepare for their upcoming deployments by reinforcing joint doctrine, key insights, and best practices that are currently used in theater."

Marks and the DTT partner closely with Operations Group Delta, BCTP as the group provides vital resources for these USJFCOM-led events.

"We focus on their staff's ability to integrate both lethal and non-lethal assets in their operational planning cycle along with the assessment process they use to make key decisions during their conduct of day-to-day operations," said Army Lt. Col. Brian Paxton, fires team chief, Operations Group Delta, BCTP.

"The team that's been assembled here to conduct this exercise is providing the I Corps staff with a realistic and complex training environment that simulates the conditions they will likely experience upon assuming their mission as Multinational Corps Iraq," said Joel Parker, a contractor supporting JFIIT as a senior exercise analyst. "Being able to prosecute a joint and multinational force targeting process is no easy task, but I Corps will be well prepared, in part, because of the training they are receiving during the UE 09-01 MRX."