Multinational training exercise at Fort Hood builds trust among allies, McConville says [Beuzz]

FORT HOOD, Texas – Thousands of U.S. and foreign troops are spread out across Fort Hood’s training ranges this month to test their ability to work together and share information to combat a large enemy force.

Army Chief of Staff Gen. James McConville traveled to Texas Army Central Base on Thursday to observe the training, which aims to prepare armored units to deploy and oversee multiple divisions in battle against a nearby enemy. It tested III Corps, 1st Cavalry Division, and foreign partner commanders to establish headquarters and establish communications links to conduct combat in a simulated environment.

III Corps’ most recent deployments have seen it lead multinational operations against the Islamic State terrorist group, and this month’s exercise again underscored the need for the U.S. military and its allies to be able to operate together. Troops from the UK, Germany, Italy and France could be seen moving through tents and facilities at the Texas post on Thursday, which has been turned into a combat operations headquarters tasked with command simulated combat.

“These are very complex operations,” McConville said after visiting British troops from the British 3rd Division, who had established themselves in a former training village on one of Fort Hood’s vast firing ranges.

“We have spent over 20 years doing counterinsurgency, counterterrorism and irregular warfare. We are at an inflection point, and we believe that the next battle, and the one that took place in Ukraine, will be large-scale combat operations.

The British division sent around 1,500 troops and 400 vehicles to participate, along with its commander, Major General James Martin.

“In the UK, we believe that we will never again go into large-scale, high-intensity conflict without allies or partners,” Martin said. “I think events since February 24 last year have shown that conflict between states is still a very real possibility and threat and, as we are seeing right now, destabilizes Europe.”

The international drill followed the arrest last week of a National Guard airman who is accused of posting top-secret Department of Defense documents online, including on the war in Ukraine. The documents contained sensitive information about the United States and its allies, and raised concerns about how Airman 1st Class Jack Teixeira, a 21-year-old low-level computer specialist, could have accessed the files. The leak went unnoticed for months.

McConville said the foreign officers he spoke to did not tell him of his concerns about the leaked documents.

“We are very concerned about any security breaches, but we have very strong relationships with our allies and partners, and we work together all the time,” McConville said. “That’s why an exercise like this is so important.”

Martin said the incident did not shake his confidence in his U.S. military partners.

“We all know that things only move, when it comes to allies, at the speed of trust. I would say the trust between our two nations and our two armies and our two armies is unprecedented,” he said. “I certainly haven’t seen any weakening of that trust between us because of these recent events.”

The exercise is scheduled to continue at Fort Hood until the end of April.