Joint Maneuvers

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Cooperative mil-to-mil engagements lay the foundation for diplomatic and political initiatives

Heat waves shimmered off the tarmac as it baked under a relentless sun. Palm trees swayed in a blast of hot wind. Suddenly a squadron of United Arab Emirates F-16 Desert Falcons screamed into the air, assembling into a strike force tasked with destroying an enemy munitions depot. As the Falcons headed to their target, relentless enemy aircraft dogged them. But the Emirati pilots managed to evade, and even destroy, one of the aggressors. They completed their mission and returned to the base in triumph, where they received a commendation from the commander.

U.A.E. Air Force Col. Tareq al-Bannay explained the challenges his team faced in a documentary about the training exercise. “The enemy side gave us many obstacles to overcome. At times, they would appear in front of us, and then they would disappear completely, but this is what you experience during wartime.”

It’s also what pilots experience at Red Flag, the world’s premier multinational aerial combat exercise. Held several times a year at Nellis Air Force Base in the United States, each drill gives Airmen from around the world a unique opportunity to operate together with cutting-edge technology in the most intense peacetime training possible. Egypt, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia have also participated in Red Flag.

Common cause
Unlike diplomatic interactions, which often focus on disputes and areas of friction, military-to-military engagements such as Red Flag are based on the benefits of addressing shared threats and common concerns. They support regional security by building partner capacity to protect mutual security interests, ensuring an effective and coordinated response in times of crisis. Mil-to-mil engagements coordinate the plans and operations necessary to address regional crises and, when necessary, make it easier for nations to quietly discuss contentious issues. Most important, they demonstrate a credible capability that influences potential adversaries and reassures friends and allies.

“That’s what we’re here for,” al-Bannay said. “[With] two weeks of Red Flag training, you get combat experience that you only get in wartime.”

But the drill provides more than just spine-tingling, skill-sharpening combat simulation. During the documentary about Red Flag, U.A.E. Air Force Capt. Saeed Al-Zaabi said participants also get to meet and work with pilots from other countries, learning new ways to improve and strengthen their own armed forces.

Military exercises are one of the most visible forms of military partnerships. Ranging from a handful of officers executing a tabletop scenario to a full-scale drill involving thousands of troops, multilateral military exercises maintain regional security partnerships, develop and expand information-sharing networks, and enable further mil-to-mil outreach. By monitoring the drivers of conflict and promoting engagement rather than reaction, they work toward a common good and help secure vital national interests.

The Gulf Cooperation Council’s (GCC) Peninsula Shield joint force, for example, conducted the Islands of Loyalty exercise in April 2012 to “test the harmony and coordination among ground, air and naval forces, and their readiness,” reported WAM, the Emirates news service. The force, comprising up to 30,000 troops from the six GCC nations, also tested its ability to carry out “special, limited and major missions along coasts and islands within the territorial waters.” WAM reported that “successful amphibious operations were staged … under massive air cover in the war game exercise.”

Other types of mil-to-mil outreach include international military training, information-sharing protocols, personnel exchanges, port visits, counterproliferation initiatives and standardized operating procedures, as well as counternarcotics, security, humanitarian and demining assistance.
All of these critical engagements promote cooperative security by building trust between militaries and individuals. They serve as vital connective tissue between friends and allies, and often lay the foundation for and bolster broader diplomatic and political initiatives.
Interoperability

One of the biggest and most visible benefits of mil-to-mil engagement is interoperability: the ability to act together effectively in pursuit of joint tactical, operational and strategic objectives.

Participants in Red Flag, for example, worked with the same cutting-edge satellite-based communications systems and GPS navigation and maintained communications links with complementary surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft that swept the skies and ground for threats and targets. When the exercise organizers deliberately jammed communications to simulate enemy interference, the multinational airmen successfully resorted to old-school plane-to-plane radio communication.

Interoperability is also a force multiplier that reduces duplication and produces synergies among partner nations by allowing them to pool their resources. The Combined Maritime Forces (CMF), for example, is a voluntary 27-nation naval partnership that patrols 2.5 million square miles of international waters, including the Arabian Gulf and its critically important waterways. Through its three principal task forces and regional partners, CMF conducts integrated and coordinated operations that counter pirate and terrorist networks, improve security, strengthen regional nations’ maritime capabilities, and rescue mariners in distress.

By focusing on a common perspective, interoperability enables military forces to integrate their forces and systems seamlessly, providing a comprehensive regional defense while maintaining individual sovereignty.

But shared capabilities alone do not equal interoperability, NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen told the Munich Security Conference attendees in February 2012: “It’s the ability to connect all our forces: Common understanding. Common command and control arrangements. Common standards. Common language. And common doctrine and procedures. It concerns everything we do as an alliance.”

Continuing education
Although interoperability is the foundation of effective multinational operations, it must be maintained through continuous education, testing and improvement.

Mil-to-mil engagements — particularly multilateral exercises — provide practical experience, heightening forces’ proficiency levels. They also help validate security concepts, procedures, systems and tactics. Supply structures, for instance, require specialized training, equipment and operating procedures. Putting these into practice allows them to be tested and, if need be, refined.

In February 2013, the GCC hosted Peninsula Shield, a 17-day training exercise to hone preparedness in its combined land, sea and air forces. “The Peninsula Shield war games aim at bolstering military cooperation, the application of the joint defense strategy, development of the sense of collective security and unity among GCC countries,” said Kuwaiti Army Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Abdul Rahman al-Othman, according to the Kuwait News Agency. “It also sends a clear message that the GCC states are ready to protect their security, stability, sovereignty and activate the concept of joint defense,” he added.

Improving real-world performance was also the goal of Peace Shield, an Emirati-Qatari land, sea and air exercise held in May 2012. The bilateral operation, part of a series of GCC exercises, focused on planning and executing joint military operations, refining command and control procedures, enhancing leadership skills, and honing military readiness. U.A.E. Maj. Gen. Rashad Mohammed Salem al-Saadi told The National, “This event enabled us to better our performance on the battlefield and concentrate on joint operations areas that needed more work.”

In addition to full-scale exercises, international military education and training help militaries develop compatible processes and procedures, engage in collaborative planning, and adapt as necessary to crisis situations. The training covers a wide range of activities and includes conducting courses, providing training teams and advisors to other countries, organizing multinational conferences and seminars, and engaging in multilateral exercises. Lastly, international military education and training removes cultural barriers and aligns defense priorities while improving professionalism.

Preventing conflict
Cooperative security becomes increasingly important as defense budgets grow ever tighter. Fostering trusted mil-to-mil relationships can lower the cost of defending national interests, while continuing to build capacity and capability. They also help counter outdated, inaccurate or incomplete views of adversaries.

Mil-to-mil ties may also avoid a far larger outlay in blood and treasure by preventing conflict in the first place. How? By establishing trusted relationships and clear lines of communication. These reliable channels serve as a steadying influence when tensions flare, permitting dialogue on a range of defense and security issues despite turbulence and friction.

Gauging the limits
Despite their tremendous potential for positive outcomes, there are limits to the effectiveness of mil-to-mil relationships.

• Although mil-to-mil relationships can build trust between armed forces, military leaders should be wary of conflating contrived scenarios with the reality of military conflict. War games can, however, hone the skills that prepare forces for varied and unpredictable situations they are likely to encounter.
• Military engagements can keep communications channels open, but they don’t resolve conflicts between governments or influence national policies. Such negotiations are, by necessity, the work of diplomats.
• Given the budgetary pressures affecting governments around the world, militaries must evaluate and prioritize which capacity-building efforts deserve funding.
• Differing technological abilities or regional rivalries may hamper efforts to increase interoperability.
• A limited approach will produce limited results, but arguably only increase the need for communication. A full range of mil-to-mil avenues is required to produce vibrant, reliable relationships between partner nations.

Persistent engagement
The long-term friendships fostered by mil-to-mil engagements such as officer exchanges can become powerful, enduring sources of vital communication. Through mil-to-mil engagement, militaries can build a network of contacts that may provide avenues to defuse crises, assure access, institutionalize cooperation and address common threats. Persistent engagement maintains these ties. They become the foundation upon which to build effective, collective action in times of security or economic crises.

“The challenges that face us are remarkable in both the number and the complexity,” Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff for the U.S. armed forces, explained during a speech on military partnerships in 2012. “But I do think that getting through those challenges both requires the hard work that comes in rolling up our sleeves and also through partnerships, and I think that in understanding comes progress.”

Sources: Centre for Foreign Policy Studies, Dalhousie University (Canada): “Closing the Gap: Enhanced Maritime Security Cooperation and Awareness,” by David Peer (ed.); The Economist; Emirates News Agency-WAM; Foreign Policy; GlobalSecurity.org; Missouri National Guard; NATO; Quarterly Journal of the Institute for Defence Studies and Analysis; U.S. Army Strategic Studies Institute; TheDiplomat.com: “Can Military Diplomacy Keep the Peace in 2013?” by Rory Medcalf; YouTube: “U.A.E. Air Force Red Flag Exercise” (English and Arabic)

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