NATO Allies enhanced operational readiness during command post exercise Steadfast Duel 2024

Europe, News November 4, 2024 , by IRIA No Comments

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More than 20 NATO Allies concluded a large-scale Command Post Exercise led by the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE) and organized by the Joint Warfare Centre (JWC) in Norway.

About 5,000 military and civilian staff participated in Steadfast Duel 2024 to enhance NATO’s operational readiness, multi-domain capabilities, and combined interoperability.

Exercise Steadfast Duel 2024 is NATO’s largest computer-assisted command post exercise focused on testing NATO’s ability to respond rapidly and effectively to a range of threats, from traditional warfare to cyberattacks and hybrid threats.

Conducted primarily by NATO’s Joint Warfare Centre (JWC) in Stavanger, Norway, the military exercise is part of NATO’s ongoing efforts to enhance operational readiness at higher tactical levels.

JWC Commander and the exercise director, Major General Ruprecht von Butler said the exercise further “strengthened NATO’s multi-domain capabilities, encompassing the full range of military operations, including the cyberspace and space domains.” He added that the JWC is instrumental to NATO’s ability to fight and win, while exercising key elements of NATO’s deterrence strategy.

“Steadfast Duel 2024 provides an excellent opportunity for us to showcase our strategic and operational capabilities, and demonstrate our commitment to NATO’s collective defense,” Maj Gen. Butler noted. “With the help of synthetic scenarios; Higher Control, Lower Control, and other EXCON functions, you describe the outer world for the training audiences, providing the most realistic training possible for all involved. Without this realism, the exercise would never work.”

NATO Steadfast Duel 2024 — *^{NATO’s SHAPE Chief of Staff General Markus Laubenthal visited NATO Joint Warfare Centre to observe Exercise Steadfast Duel 2024. (Image Credit: NATO Joint Warfare Centre/X)}*

NATO’s Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe Admiral Sir Keith Edward Blount visited the JWC on October 24 and observed the exercise as well as engaged with the Exercise Control (EXCON) staff. Other distinguished visitors who observed the exercise included Chief of Staff SHAPE General Markus Laubenthal (German Army) and Deputy Commanding General of United States Army Europe and Africa Lieutenant General Sean C. Bernabe.

During the exercise, NATO partners practiced delivering airpower and experiment with processes and command and control structure with the ultimate goal of identifying a much more resilient and adaptable structure.

JWC’s Deputy Chief of Staff, Exercises, Training, and Innovation Directorate, Colonel Kevin Rafferty, who served as the Chief of the Exercise Control team, amplified the aims of the exercise and said, “The JWC’s exercises have been redesigned to meet the requirements of the Supreme Allied Commander Europe for increased realism.”

Col Rafferty added, “Our collective aim is to simulate a complex 360-degree picture of the war-fighting environment so that participants can achieve their training objectives and practice joint command and control across air, land, sea, space, and cyber domains.”

NATO Exercise Steadfast Duel

Steadfast Duel exercise includes participants from over 20 NATO command and force structure headquarters, including Allied Joint Force Command Naples and Allied Air Command (AIRCOM). It is one of the most significant NATO AIRCOM exercise that offers the command a challenging opportunity to practice delivering airpower on behalf of NATO and refine and exercise AIRCOM’s processes.

The exercise also helps enhance liaison between AIRCOM, NATO’s land component, the NATO Space Operations Center, and other components critical for multi-domain operations.

The exercise’s complexity comes from integrating scenarios that involve all NATO military capabilities across land, sea, air, space, and cyber domains within a complex scenario.