Eager Lion

Making Missions More Multinational

UNIPATH STAFF

As visiting generals descended upon a military compound near Marka, Jordan, special forces Soldiers formed a half circle to greet the approaching dignitaries. They came from Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Lebanon. They came from Turkey, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and the United States.

Translators deftly captured commanders’ exhortations to their men, negotiating what could have been a logjam of languages: First Arabic, then English and Turkish, Russian and Tajik in succession. The pleasantries dispensed with, squadrons dispersed to execute missions across the arid rocky landscape of north central Jordan.

After witnessing such partnerships in action at Eager Lion 2014, the military exercise hosted by the Jordan Armed Forces from May 25 to June 8, Jordanian Brig. Gen. Fahad Al-Damin marveled at the ability of multinational forces to break down barriers: “The language gaps all disappear when we come together.”

Attracting close to 12,000 participants from 23 nations, Eager Lion demonstrated once again Jordan’s prowess for conducting joint land, sea and air training under a multinational command. Whether it was disarming terrorists aboard a captured ship near the port of Aqaba, storming buildings to rescue hostages, launching missiles at distant targets or repelling cross-border incursions, Eager Lion provided scenarios that tested Soldiers’ tolerance for operating outside the familiar constraints of nationality.

This fourth iteration of U.S. Central Command’s Eager Lion exercise was noteworthy in several ways. Saudi Arabia, content a year earlier to adopt an observer’s role, became the third largest supplier of troops to Eager Lion 2014, reaffirming that nation’s long-standing leadership role in the Middle East. Farther afield, Kazakhstan and Tajikistan became the first Central Asia nations ever to send personnel to an Arab-led multinational exercise. Pakistan’s expanded role included prominent contributions to special operations forces.

“Eager Lion is becoming a big opportunity for synchronizing relationships,” Jordanian Brig. Gen. Jumah Al-Hrout, who commanded the multinational Joint Combined Task Force at the exercise, told Unipath. “The operational environment is being changed. There is never one country doing campaigns by itself anymore. We used to go formation against formation, thousands of tanks against thousands of tanks. Now we cannot do that. We will use bits and pieces of everything to fulfill the desire of the international community for peace and stability.”

Special operations

At the King Abdullah II Special Operations Training Center outside the Jordanian capital of Amman, Pakistani commandos belonging to the elite Special Services Group, or SSG, readied themselves for a night mission to rescue hostages in a simulated village built within the bowl of an old Jordanian rock quarry.

The Pakistanis, joined by Saudi commandos, would raid the three-story buildings from ground level, approaching the target in armored troop carriers. Special forces from Jordan and Brunei would fast rope onto the roofs from attack helicopters. U.S. special forces offered some of their tactics, techniques and procedures for the mission.

“The goal is working unity between these countries,” one U.S. Army trainer noted.

In a practice run, Pakistani commandos traded floppy canvas hats for assault helmets. Most of the SSG men carry M-4 carbines, except for the two commandos equipped with pump shotguns for blasting off door locks. That detail in itself represented a compromise among these multinational forces: In their home country, Pakistani assault troops favor blasting “cat holes” in walls instead of blasting off locks.

The assault proceeds as planned. As the mock village slumbers in the cool desert air after midnight, a sudden racket of helicopter blades announces the mission in progress. The 68-man assault force, divided into four teams based on nationality, closes from multiple directions on the target buildings. Within minutes, the five “hostages” — portrayed by U.S. Marines — are safely sprung.

Not limiting themselves to urban environments, the Saudis and Pakistanis also placed a sizable contingent of special operations forces in Aqaba to participate in maritime drills to foil enemies at sea.

“Participation of Saudi Armed Forces in Eager Lion 2014 aims to exchange experiences with friendly countries to gain more military professionalism,” said Saudi Col. Mohammed bin Abdullah Al-Baqmi, one of his nation’s most senior officers at the exercise.

Missiles in the desert

About an hour to the east, as the terrain devolves into the unforgiving rocky landscape of Jordan’s eastern desert, squadrons of Jordanian and U.S. artillery troops steered a High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) into place for a guided missile assault on a distant target.

The precision fire demonstration, the product of four months of joint training between the U.S military and Jordan’s 29th Royal HIMARS Battalion, aimed to display the skills of Jordanian observers and controllers.

A Jordanian truck-based launcher — painted beige to distinguish it from the American green — rolled across the desert floor, trailing dust in its wake. The rocket tubes rose from the bed of the truck and, once they reached proper elevation, fired a missile in a twist of smoke. The projectile zoomed to a height of about 23,000 meters and in less than two minutes smashed into a target 65 kilometers to the east.

No sound of the explosion reaches the launch site. But it is captured from above by an unmanned aerial vehicle. The image is transmitted to a television screen in an observation tent filled with dignitaries, including His Royal Highness Prince Faisal bin Al Hussein of Jordan.

The drill is repeated four more times to the satisfaction of commanders such as U.S. Maj. Gen. Robert Catalanotti, U.S. Central Command’s director of exercises.

“We train and rehearse for any contingency so that we’re united,” Catalanotti noted.

Chemical attack

Eager Lion doesn’t limit training strictly to Soldiers. Civilians play a role in what has become an annual event at the exercise: a chemical attack on a camp for displaced people to showcase the skill and efficiency of crisis management teams consisting of medical personnel, military police, special forces and civil defense agencies. It was during such a display, dubbed Fruitful Coordination, that the UAE excelled.

The simulated nerve gas attack began when a truck penetrated a security barrier and spewed purple and green smoke. As victims convulsed on the ground, 12 UAE Soldiers wearing protective suits and gas masks raced to the rescue, joined by colleagues from the Jordan Armed Forces.

Emergency teams hastily erected tunnel-like decontamination tents and divided the camp into hot, warm and cold zones depending on the severity of risk. Water pumps that arrived on trucks delivered enough water to decontaminate 300 people. At a safe distance from the attack site, doctors from the Royal Jordanian Medical Services stabilized casualties in tents before shipping them to hospitals.

“One of our goals was to test relations between Jordan’s Armed Forces, security bodies, state institutions and governmental departments,” Brig. Gen. Al-Damin told the Jordan Times while UAE participants posed for congratulatory photos in the background with their commanding officers and embassy diplomats.

Multinational to the last

At Eager Lion, multinational interoperability started at the top. The exercise control group, which kept track of operations across the length and breadth of Jordan, possessed the same multinational flavor as units on the ground. Officers from participating countries took turns conducting briefings each morning. Jordanians, Emiratis, Pakistanis, Saudis, Kuwaitis and Bahrainis were all offered chances to take a lead role during the nearly two weeks of the exercise.

Troop combinations weren’t always predictable. Out in the Jordanian desert, UAE special forces trained with Canadians. In the Gulf of Aqaba, Kuwaitis, Frenchmen, Americans and Jordanians teamed up aboard rubberized attack boats to storm beaches and grapple up the sides of ships.

In tents near the Jordanian city of Zarqa that made up the nerve center of the Combined Joint Task Force, Kazakhs huddled around planning tables with Arab partners. An assault on a desert ridge at Jebel Petra included aggressive flyovers by Saudi, Jordanian, Turkish and U.S. jets.

Jordanian Col. Mazin Al-Farrayeh, head of planning and operations for the Combined Joint Task Force, noted that each country brings different styles and capabilities to the exercise but leaves with a greater focus on common goals.

“What started as a bilateral exercise between Jordan and the United States has now become broadly multilateral,” Al-Farrayeh said. “For me, this exercise equals all the years of normal service in the military. Here you have people who have fought on the ground, and we discover the real problems they faced.”  

Eager Lion 2014 Participants

• Australia
• Bahrain
• Belgium
• Brunei
• Canada
• Czech Republic
• Egypt
• France
• Indonesia
• Iraq
• Italy
• Jordan
• Kazakhstan
• Kuwait
• Lebanon
• Pakistan
• Poland
• Qatar
• Saudi Arabia
• Tajikistan
• Turkey
• United Arab Emirates
• United Kingdom
• United States