{"id":301888,"date":"2024-10-16T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-10-16T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=301888"},"modified":"2024-10-16T21:34:08","modified_gmt":"2024-10-16T21:34:08","slug":"usareur-af-leads-forum-on-nato-convergence-at-ausa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=301888","title":{"rendered":"USAREUR-AF leads forum on NATO convergence at AUSA"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n Gen. Darryl Williams (left), commanding general of US Army Europe and Africa, explains the focus of NATO convergence efforts: “We are about warfighting in US Army Europe and Africa,” Williams said. He was joined on the panel by (from left to right) Maj. Gen. Jonny Lindfors, chief of Swedish Army, Ms. Dara Massicot, , senior fellow, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Russia and Eurasia Program and moderator Senior Research Fellow for Land Warfare at the Royal United Services Institute Dr. Jack Watling.
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WASHINGTON \u2014 U.S. Army Europe and Africa Commanding Gen. Darryl Williams hosted Maj. Gen. Jonny Lindfors, chief of Swedish Army\u200b and Ms. Dara Massicot, senior fellow, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Russia and Eurasia Program, at a contemporary military forum at the annual meeting of the Association of the United States Army in Washington yesterday, Oct. 15, 2024. The topic of the CMF was \u201cNATO Convergence in Contact: Transforming Land Power.\u201d<\/p>\n

The discussion, moderated by senior research fellow for Land Warfare at the Royal United Services Institute Dr. Jack Watling, came roughly three months after a raft of new NATO defense plans were announced in the very same location at the annual NATO Summit by Army Gen. Christopher Cavoli, supreme allied commander, Europe, and commander of U.S. European Command. The plans, years in the making, were necessitated by the illegal invasion of Ukraine by Russia and were the first such large-scale combat plans since the end of the Cold War, according to Cavoli.<\/p>\n

The defense plans have led to a doubling of the number of battle groups in Europe, as well as an increase in the number of service members at higher levels of readiness, alliance-wide.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat’s because we’ve been able to amalgamate and incorporate national defense plans into the NATO defense plans, so they complement each other,” Cavoli told attendees of the Summit. “It has produced an ability to be forward postured.”<\/p>\n

Testing and operationalizing that increased capacity with prescriptive plans\u2014known as \u201cNATO Convergence\u201d \u2014 has become one of the key responsibilities of Gen. Williams, who, along with his role as commanding general of USAREUR-AF, also serves as the commander of NATO\u2019s Land Forces Command. This command also serves as the Army Service Component Command for U.S. Africa Command.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnited States Army Europe and Africa is at the nexus of three combatant commands and two continents \u2014 and they\u2019re interlinked,\u201d Williams said. \u201cWe are now more relevant than we\u2019ve ever been.\u201d<\/p>\n

During September\u2019s Avenger Triad exercise, according to Williams, USAREUR-AF transitioned its staff to serve as NATO\u2019s multi-corps land component command, leading one U.S. and five multinational corps in a command post exercise, under the leadership of Allied Joint Force Command Brunssum.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just finished arguably the biggest exercise we\u2019ve done since the 80s,\u201d said Williams during his remarks, discussing Avenger Triad. \u201cWe had corps passing each other. Think about that. No other theater is passing corps in a fight, no other theater. In Europe, we\u2019re doing that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Maj. Gen. Lindfors, during his remarks, provided the Swedish perspective, which is also that of NATO\u2019s newest member. Lindfors said joining NATO at a time the organization was undergoing its own transformation is a challenge, but countries of the High North bring a lot to the mission of defending Europe.<\/p>\n

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\n Gen. Darryl Williams discusses the recently-completed Avenger Triad exercise, which saw USAREUR-AF lead V Corps and five multinational corps.
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\u201cSweden and Finland becoming NATO members actually changed the dynamics a little bit,\u201d Lindfors said. \u201cWe\u2019re bringing in the geography and the forces, so we\u2019re changing the equation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sweden, even before becoming a member of NATO, has been a member of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, which increases Sweden\u2019s \u2014 and Lindfors\u2019 \u2014 challenges.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have been tasked to double the army,\u201d Lindfors said. \u201cWe have a little dip in equipment, because we are also making huge donations to Ukraine \u2014 the best way ever to be able to spend the resources we have.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the tactical level, NATO convergence is creating the means by which allied land forces can communicate and operate despite human, technical and procedural differences in order to achieve strategic goals. In the European theater this has meant an investment of time and energy over the past few years improving interoperability for warfighting ends.<\/p>\n

Exercising with multinational forces in ways that have guided the Army\u2019s thinking on what large scale combat exercises would look like \u2014 and how they would work \u2014 has been a role USAREUR-AF can best play, as its troops are spread across the continent, living and working alongside their Allies.<\/p>\n

There are also lessons being learned from the Ukrainians, as they continue to defend themselves against Russian aggression. As Cavoli told the Summit attendees in July, NATO Convergence will be improved and guided by the Ukrainian fight as a new, NATO-led Joint Training and Evaluation Center stands up in Poland. USAREUR-AF provides direct support to the effort as the theater enabling command for Security Assistance Group \u2014 Ukraine.<\/p>\n

In some ways, though, said Massicot, one of the most important lessons learned from Ukraine\u2019s fight may be about the very necessity of NATO in the first place and its continuing value to world peace.<\/p>\n

\u201cRussia is beginning to put the pieces into place for long-term reconstitution,\u201d Massicot said. \u201c(The Russian army) is an organization that is changing in real-time. It is now a mobilization army. It is not the same as it was in 22 and some of its worst impulses are being reinforced.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the CMF, Williams and the other panelists made clear that NATO\u2019s newly-strengthened commitment in light of Russian aggression has been at the heart of this once-in-a-generation transformation of how Soldiers in Europe will fight alongside NATO allies. At the heart of NATO Convergence, Williams added, are the ideals on which the alliance stands, which stand in stark contrast to Russian aggression in Ukraine.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is bigger than just Russia and Ukraine,\u201d Williams said. \u201cThis is about our values. This is about our democratic way of life.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gen. Darryl Williams (left), commanding general of US Army Europe and Africa, explains the focus of NATO convergence efforts: “We are about warfighting in US Army Europe and Africa,” Williams said. He was joined on the panel by (from left to right) Maj. Gen. Jonny Lindfors, chief of Swedish Army, Ms. Dara Massicot, , senior […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":301890,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-301888","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301888","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=301888"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301888\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":301893,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301888\/revisions\/301893"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/301890"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=301888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=301888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=301888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}