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Eucom Participates in Global Command, Control Exercise

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U.S. European Command brought together service members around the world for a computer-assisted global command-and-control exercise called Austere Challenge 2017, which focused on European security.

An Abrams tank fires a round during the multinational exercise Saber Guardian 16 near Cincu, Romania, Aug. 6, 2016. The tank belongs to Delta Company, 1st Combined Arms Battalion, 64th Armor Regiment, 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division.
Approximately 2800 military personnel from 10 nations are taking part in Saber Guardian. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Corinna Baltos
U.S. European Command virtually joined service members around the world conducting a global command-and-control exercise, Austere Challenge 2017, focused on European security. Pictured here, an Abrams tank fires a round during the multinational exercise Saber Guardian 16 near Cincu, Romania, Aug. 6, 2016. The tank belongs to Delta Company, 1st Combined Arms Battalion, 64th Armor Regiment, 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division. Approximately 2,800 military personnel from 10 nations took part in Saber Guardian. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Corinna Baltos
An Abrams tank fires a round during the multinational exercise Saber Guardian 16 near Cincu, Romania, Aug. 6, 2016. The tank belongs to Delta Company, 1st Combined Arms Battalion, 64th Armor Regiment, 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division.
Approximately 2800 military personnel from 10 nations are taking part in Saber Guardian. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Corinna Baltos
Tank Training
U.S. European Command virtually joined service members around the world conducting a global command-and-control exercise, Austere Challenge 2017, focused on European security. Pictured here, an Abrams tank fires a round during the multinational exercise Saber Guardian 16 near Cincu, Romania, Aug. 6, 2016. The tank belongs to Delta Company, 1st Combined Arms Battalion, 64th Armor Regiment, 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division. Approximately 2,800 military personnel from 10 nations took part in Saber Guardian. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Corinna Baltos
Photo By: Staff Sgt. Corinna Baltos
VIRIN: 160806-D-XT155-005

Austere Challenge is a command-post exercise designed to train multi-combatant command coordination in fictitious scenarios.

Important Training Exercise

Describing the exercise as a complete success, Army Gen. Curtis M. Scaparrotti, Eucom’s commander, said the training event was another way to remain responsive and proactive in a theater that is constantly and dynamically changing.

“I am proud of every single one of you who participated,” Scaparrotti said. “Your efforts are critical to ensuring we have a trained and postured joint team ready to respond at the speed of conflict. Exercises like this validate our ability to rapidly respond together with decisive and overwhelming success in Europe or to enable other combatant commands.”

“Eucom’s fully-developed and tested infrastructure provides unsurpassed capability in a strategically vital forward location,” said Air Force Maj. Gen. Mark Loeben, Eucom’s director of exercises and assessments.

“Austere Challenge tested our ability to provide strategic and operational effects in various locations around the globe,” Loeben said, “providing overwhelming and decisive results in a variety of exercise situations. This exercise ensures our warfighters practice, and hone, their abilities to respond to any crisis situation.”

Eucom is one of the United States’ two forward-deployed geographical combatant commands, whose area of focus covers almost one-fifth of the planet, including all of Europe, large portions of Asia, parts of the Middle East and the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans.

The command is responsible for military relations with NATO and 51 countries with a total population of close to a billion people.

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