Exercise Arrcade Spear - Another step forward in civilian-military working
In the mid-October wilds of St Mawgan, 19 civilians from the Stabilisation Unit (SU), DFID and the FCO braved the autumnal weather to help ensure civilian-military integration at the highest levels of the NATO Allied Rapid Reaction Corps’ (ARRC) recent training exercise. The SU, in close cooperation with DFID and the FCO, coordinated the civilian component of the Arrcade Spear exercise. Here Mark Singleton, a member of the SU’s planning team, explains why this was yet another step forward for civilian-military integration.
Building on the success of previous integrated civilian – military exercises, notably ARRCADE FUSION in 2009, the NATO Allied Rapid Reaction Corps (ARRC) approached the Stabilisation Unit with a request to provide assistance for this year’s major exercise, ARRCADE SPEAR. The exercise at RAF St Mawgan, near Newquay, took place between 8-15 October, and involved over 500 military staff from the ARRC as well as the UK, Germany, US and the IJC.
In total, 19 civilians took part, including core staff from the FCO, DFID and the SU, as well as members of the SU’s Civilian Stabilisation Group (CSG). The civilian contribution was recognised at the highest levels by former Commander ISAF, General McKiernan,”if only I had had a team of civilians like this with me when I was Commanding ISAF.”
A large part of the ARRC will be deploying to the ISAF Joint Headquarters (IJC) in Kabul later this year and in early 2011, so the exercise was designed to emulate the IJC’s working environment as closely as possible. The ARRC had reconstructed the IJC’s main office, copying its exact layout inside a massive tent and filling it with foldable tables, chairs and laptops. Using ISAF’s own information systems, replicating real life events from the Afghan theatre, spending long hours at work, and smelling the familiar perfume of the canteen and makeshift toilets, made it highly authentic - it almost felt like we were in Afghanistan.
The exercise proved to be a great success, once again illustrating the importance of joint training and integrated planning. Alongside their role-playing tasks, civilians mentored the training audience and observers on themes as diverse as governance, counter narcotics, transition, elections and strategic communications, offering their experience of working with both the international community and the Afghan government.
The SU's support and ongoing engagement with the ARRC over the past two years has helped shape the practices they will adopt when deploying to ISAF Joint Command and, at ARRC’s request, we will be deploying three civilian planners to sit within the team – proving this was not just a useful chance to train together, but to build enduring relationships to develop in Afghanistan.