Trident Juncture 2015 begins

Early October saw the start of  "Trident Juncture 2015" a high visibility exercise to showcase NATO on the world stage. It involves over 30,000 personnel from more than 30 nations and its purpose is to train and test the NATO Response Force 2016 (NRF 16), a high readiness and technologically advanced force capable of being deployed quickly on operations wherever needed. Spain is one of the host countries of the exercise, providing 8000 personnel and 8 scenarios.

The exercise comprises two clearly differentiated phases: a Command Post Exercise (CPX,) and a Live Exercise phase (LIVEX).

The purpose of the CPX phase – to be carried out from 3 to 16 October – is to assess and certify the NRF 2016’s command structure. It will be conducted in several military units in Germany, Belgium, Canada, Holland, Italy, Portugal, UK and in waters of the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea.

The LIVEX phase – to run from 21 October to 6 November – will involve several land, sea and air operations: an offensive land operation, amphibious landings, parachute jumps, urban environment exercises, actions by special operations forces, intervention in a nuclear, radiological, biological and chemical environment (CBRN), among others.

In both phases Spanish SAPIIEM systems will be providing JISR-capacity support for the various command levels and in particular for joint NATO commands in SHAPE and Brunssum, for the central BICES node participating in the exercise and for the ground command component made up by forces of CGTAD (Cuartel General Terrestre de Alta Disponibilidad) in Bétera and its subordinated foreign brigades.

SAPIIEM is the result of a project driven by the Directorate General of Armaments and Material (Dirección General de Armamento y Material: DGAM) and being carried out by GMV. Its purpose is to ensure interoperability of ISR resources, thus maximizing the military usefulness of this information in a coalition.

GMV personnel is present at these exercises to provide support for the deployment, operation and maintenance of SAPIIEM service infrastructure and also for operational personnel using SEISMO and ATENEA applications developed in the framework of this project.

SAPIIEM has been successfully put through its paces in both national (EXCIVIR) and international exercises (MAJIIC, Unified Vision, Steadfast Cobalt, etc.) and it is currently taking part successfully in this new exercise in which NATO aims to display the preparation and interoperability of allied capabilities for collective defense and crisis management, coming up with a joint response to present and future threats and coordinating and collaborating with the various stakeholders working on the world stage.