Kuwait hosts the largest Eagle Resolve exercise in 16 years
photos by KUWAIT ARMED FORCES
The helicopters came in low, raising clouds of dust as they settled on the desert floor and dispensed multinational response forces. The commandos came in many stripes: Kuwaitis and Jordanians in beige camouflage, Qataris all in black, Bangladeshis in deep green, Americans uniformed to match the surrounding sand.
The terrorists who were holding hostages at the Kuwaiti seawater desalination plant were caught off guard. Before the assault began, they had felt secure enough to kick around a soccer ball in the compound. Minutes later they were rooted out of buildings, handcuffed and whisked into armored personnel carriers.
But a closer look at the scenario — part of the Eagle Resolve 2015 multinational military exercise hosted by Kuwait in March 2015 — revealed it wasn’t just a showcase for special forces. Off in the distance, blue-clad Kuwaiti police had formed a perimeter sealing off the compound, assisted by Kuwaiti National Guardsmen who swooped onto the scene aboard trucks equipped with machine guns.
When special forces discovered that the hostage takers had also been brewing noxious chemicals in a clandestine laboratory, medical teams from the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, and decontamination squads from Jordan, Kuwait and Qatar arrived in ambulances and mobile labs.
Kuwaiti exercise director Brig. Gen. Mohammed Al-Kandari, this demonstration of proficiency unfolding in a desert miles from Kuwait City accomplished a primary goal of Eagle Resolve: to highlight cooperation not just between multinational militaries but also between Soldiers and civilian agencies. Gen. Al-Kandari said that in the past some Kuwaiti military and civilian officials had never spoken to each other professionally, a deficiency that Eagle Resolve corrected.
“The exercise is conducted at a national level involving all agencies and government entities that are related to the military and security field to prepare for real-life scenarios to defend the nation,” Gen. Al-Kandari said.
Eagle Resolve brought together thousands of Soldiers from 29 partner nations to address the challenges of asymmetric and unconventional warfare. As always, most of the main participants came from Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) nations: Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
The exercise began with a command post exercise to build multinational integration in a simulated headquarters environment. Air defense and border security played large roles in the nearly 100 events created to challenge participants. Egypt, Jordan and Pakistan were among the non-GCC countries involved. The next phase was a field training exercise that tested the mettle of troops on the ground, in the air and on the seas. After most of the exercise participants had dispersed, top commanders concluded Eagle Resolve with a senior leader seminar.
Aside from the hostage-taking event, forces were asked to respond to crises that included a crippled oil tanker in the Arabian Gulf, an airplane crash involving hazardous materials at Abdullah Al-Mubarak Air Base and an attack by missiles carrying chemical warheads. The crowning event was an amphibious landing on Failaka Island, 20 kilometers from Kuwait City, in which multinational forces wrested control of a beachhead from armed terrorists.
“This joint exercise is considered as one of the largest exercises in the Middle East, and it is part of Saudi Arabia’s training and programs, which aims to develop and enhance Saudi forces’ skills, raise combat readiness and learn techniques from other participating forces,” said Saudi Col. Saleh bin Abdullah Al-Harbi. “It will strengthen regional cooperation in the field of joint operations toward achieving the desired goal of countering challenges and crises.”
Many of the events called on the specialized skills of paramedics, physicians, police, national guardsmen, firefighters and crisis management agencies — exactly as Eagle Resolve’s Kuwaiti planners intended.
For example, at the mock missile attack that produced dozens of sick and dying victims of chemical exposure, military and civilian responders arrived on the scene, quickly establishing a cordon and triaging victims. Personnel erected decontamination tents like desert flowers after a spring rain. Doctors fed intravenous fluids to moaning victims on stretchers. Qatari medics rolled up in two fully equipped mobile surgical buses they had brought to Kuwait aboard ships, earning the admiration of partner nations and setting the bar high for how medical treatment drills should be conducted.
“If we go back to the history of Eagle Resolve, we will see that the exercise began with fewer participants, and it has witnessed huge expansion and participation from all regional and international nations,” said Qatari Staff Brig. Gen. Jassem Ahmed Al-Mohanadi, commander of National Defense & Crisis Management Center. “The nations’ shared interest to improve was obvious in the Eagle exercise, with the participation of more than 5,000 participants from 29 countries.”
Eagle Resolve was born in 1999 as a missile air defense seminar that brought together GCC partners and United States Central Command, but it has grown to become the premier GCC/Arabian Peninsula military exercise. Although the event has rotated among GCC countries, Kuwait hadn’t hosted until this year. It vowed to make the March 2015 exercise the biggest ever.
Gen. Al-Kandari viewed Kuwait’s mission as more than just showcasing the abilities of his nation’s forces. As he repeated throughout the exercise, he viewed each tactical scenario as an opportunity to expose potential vulnerabilities that commanders can later correct. “We want to learn,” the general said during the plane crash event at Abdullah Al-Mubarak Air Base.
U.S. Air Force Maj. Gen. Rick Mattson, U.S. Central Command director of exercises and training, noted that militaries that rise to greatness are militaries that examine themselves critically.
“Each country has the ability to make inputs and adjust this exercise to develop it exactly how they want — depending on what they’re most concerned about — and this is the culmination of it,” Gen. Mattson said.
He also expressed admiration for the interministerial coordination Kuwait displayed at Eagle Resolve. “This is the first time we’ve done that. We’re much stronger as a group,” the general said.
A prime example of group strength occurred on the last day of field training on Failaka Island. Despite different leadership, doctrines, languages and sometimes equipment, troops from six nations formed a unified amphibious fighting force.
The scene is a quiet beach speckled with abandoned vacation cottages, some of which are enlisted to serve as fortified terrorist command posts. Kuwaiti F/A-18s fly in low to bust these enemy bunkers, followed up by low-altitude strafing by Emirati F-16s. Landing craft punch ashore from several directions, disgorging Kuwaiti Marines and special forces accompanied by Qatari and Turkish Marines. As infantry advance behind armored vehicles, green smoke grenades signal to headquarters that the beach has been captured and a foothold secured for additional operations.
As forces rush inland toward their targets, they summon extra support from Kuwaiti AS332 Super Puma helicopters, out of which commandos fast rope onto enemy positions. Action isn’t restricted to the land. Out in the Arabian Gulf, Kuwaiti Navy and Coast Guard patrol boats buzz offshore with help from Saudi Arabia’s Al-Siddiq guided missile gunboat. The U.S. Navy ship Fort McHenry throws squads of Marines onto the beach to support their coalition partners. Together, the troops storm a terrorist command post and plant a Kuwaiti flag on the roof.
It might have looked easy, but it was the fruit of at least three days of classroom work and three days of practical exercises for the assault troops, not to mention the logistical complexities of landing tons of military hardware from all branches of the military.
At the conclusion of the exercise, as the last wisps of smoke dissipated from the beach, Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister Sheikh Khaled Al-Jarrah Al-Sabah praised the ability of multinational forces to synchronize efforts.
“All have seen the final exercise and noticed the cooperation among the forces, especially in the final exercise that lasted 40 minutes. However, it took so much effort and time to plan it,” the Kuwaiti minister said. “I am proud of the professional level that we reached in planning and working together with our brothers in Gulf states and our friends.”