About 978 soldiers from three NATO and twelve other central and eastern
European countries will practice and develop their combined peacekeeping skills
alongside U.S. soldiers at the Joint Readiness Training Center (JRTC), Fort
Polk, La., Aug. 6 through 28.
The exercise, called Cooperative Nugget 95, is scheduled by NATO's
Norfolk-based Allied Command Atlantic and hosted on behalf of the United States
by the Commander in Chief, United States Atlantic Command at Norfolk, Va. The
Norfolk-based Commander in Chief, Western Atlantic Area, will work with the
United States Army Forces Command at Atlanta, Ga., to coordinate the exercise.
It is the sixth military exercise to be conducted as part of NATO's Partnership
For Peace (PFP) program. The aim of Cooperative Nugget, the first exercise of
its kind on U.S. soil, is to foster interoperability between the participating
forces through the practice of combined peacekeeping and humanitarian relief
tactics, techniques and communications procedures at the platoon and company
levels. NATO's PFP program assists the military forces of partner nations in
emerging from the cold war as positive, non-political, defense-oriented
elements of their societies.
Each partner country will contribute a rifle platoon, which will retain its
national integrity. These platoons will comprise combined rifle companies that
will form a NATO/PFP battalion. The combined NATO/PFP battalion, alongside
U.S. combat support and combat service support units, will report to a model
U.S. brigade headquarters. The peacekeeping forces will be supported by 12
Special Forces coalition support teams from the 10th Special Forces Group, Fort
Carson, Colo. These teams will provide technical and linguistic support to the
partner nation contingents.
Cooperative Nugget's scenario-based, field training centers on a fictional
border dispute between two hypothetical countries. The United Nations will
attempt to resolve the dispute and establish a peacekeeping force to monitor
the buffer zone between the two sides. The training will be conducted in
accordance with current U.S. Army, NATO and United Nations training
methodology. Soldiers and vehicles will be equipped with Multiple Integrated
Laser Engagement Systems (MILES) to assess casualties. Army and partner nation
observer/controllers will oversee events and conduct after-action reviews.
For additional information concerning U.S. activities and involvement in
Cooperative Nugget 95, contact the Public Affairs Office, U.S. Atlantic
Command, at (804) 444-3884. For further information concerning activities and
involvement of other NATO countries and participating partner nations, contact
the Public Affairs Office at Allied Command Atlantic, (804) 445-3600.
