Anaconda 16

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Anakonda 2016 practice room
Issuing orders to a multinational group of soldiers during the opening ceremony
Soldiers from 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division during the opening ceremony
Target practice at Drawsko Pomorskie
German and British amphibious vehicles at the Chełmno bridge
Air landing during the maneuver

Anakonda 16 was a large-scale maneuver by the Polish army and Polish volunteer organizations with the participation of NATO that took place in northern Poland from June 7 to 17, 2016. More than 31,000 soldiers from 24 NATO and partner countries (including Poland, Estonia, Great Britain, Canada, Lithuania, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, Hungary and the United States) practiced the defense against an attack by a “country from the north”.

history

The exercise took place at a time when NATO's relationship with its Polish neighbor Russia is tense due to various conflicts such as Russia's participation in the Syrian civil war , the annexation of Crimea and the war in eastern Ukraine .

The Anakonda exercise , formally a national exercise of the Polish Ministry of Defense, has been held every two years since 2006. However, at Warsaw's insistence, many other NATO members, particularly the United States, took part in the exercise in 2016. Observers assume that this was inconvenient for the alliance itself, as it wanted to reanimate the dialogue with Russia while "war is being played in Poland".

Troops involved

The major exercise, which took place from June 7 to 17, 2016 and was the largest military maneuver in Poland for 25 years, was under the operational management of Lieutenant General Marek Tomaszycki , Commander of the Polish Armed Forces, with the participation of Lieutenant General Frederick B. Hodges , Commander of US Army Europe (USAREUR), Allied Land Command (LANDCOM) and the Multinational Corps Northeast (MNC-NE).

The maneuver, which was divided into “Force User” and “Force Provider”, provided for combined movements of the armed forces of the army, airborne troops, amphibious landing forces, navy, air force and special forces. A total of 12,000 Polish soldiers, two corps and three divisions (two Polish and one US American), twelve brigades and a number of sub-units were involved as the "NATO Rapid Reaction Force". 3,000 vehicles were in use, including Leopard 2A4 main battle tanks and armored Rosomak troop transports. Most of the F-16 fighter planes were used in the air operations .

assignment

The aim of the exercise is a response to several threat scenarios from a possible attack by an aggressor and is also intended to strengthen the allied partners' stability. The exercise has a purely defensive character and is a performance test of the interoperability of the NATO partners during a joint exercise. Poland, which is participating in its largest military maneuver since 1989 through this exercise, is assuming the role of Host Nation Support (HNS). Defense missions and the rapid addition of Allied reserves form the core of this. For example, US airborne troops with Boeing C-17 Globemaster, Lockheed C-130 Hercules and C-295M transport planes were relocated directly from Fort Bragg in North Carolina to their area of ​​operation, including Świdwin . They had to prepare for combat readiness after a short warning period and work out the plan of operations. For the first time, combat scenarios from cyberspace were simulated as part of “Anakonda 16” . The overall exercise was divided into numerous sub-exercises. Another partial exercise of the Polish voluntary associations such as FIA Defense Association (Fideles et Instructi Armis), Obronanarodowa.pl, Legia Akademicka and ZS “Strzelec” took place in Wędrzyn , Biała Góra, Orzysz and Dęba.

procedure

“The aim of the exercises is to test the ability of the NATO countries to defend the territory of the eastern flank of the Alliance,” said Polish Defense Minister Antoni Macierewicz . Various combat situations were given during the exercise. The organizer of the maneuver, which in this case was involved but not under the umbrella of NATO, was Poland. The exercise took place in different places in Poland; sometimes even near the Belarusian border. In western Poland, air forces simulated the takeover of certain territories so that armored units could safely push forward. A major airborne operation took place east of the Vistula. The construction of the war bridge at Chelmno should enable troops to move into the Baltic States . The forces crossed a large part of Polish territory. On the artillery side, rocket launchers from the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) were also used. In addition to an air landing of 2,000 paratroopers and a pioneer crossing of the Vistula near Chełmno , another aim of the exercise was to study various scenarios of electronic warfare, among other things. The supply of the fighting troops is ensured by supply units of the 16th Sustainment Brigade (“Knights Brigade”). An association that was relocated from Baumholder to Toruń and is also responsible for replenishing the Swift Response and Saber Strike maneuvers , some of which take place at the same time. Together with the Polish 3rd Surface to Air Missile Brigade and the British 19th Tank Transporter Squadron, the 10th Army Air and Missile Defense Command (10th AAMDC) leads the enemy threat scenario, the decision and the conclusion of the maneuver.

Chronological order

  • 0June 6: Opening ceremony at the Academy of National Defense in Warsaw
  • 0June 7th: 2,000 Polish, US and British paratroopers land in the air near Toruń
  • 0June 8: Multinational pioneering groups build bridges across the Vistula near Chełmno , which will enable the transport of 300 vehicles for the Saber Strike maneuver in the Baltic States
  • 0June 9: Combat firing by the Army anti-aircraft troops in defense against enemy planes and missiles near Ustka
  • June 10: Night attack by Polish and US paratroopers who were relocated to the landing area in 35 helicopters
  • June 11: Simulation of an NBC attack in cooperation with the medical service
  • June 11th: A British battalion crossed the river Oder near Biała Góra, near Krosno Odrzańskie
  • June 13th: Demonstration of performance by the amphibious pioneers near Chełmno
  • June 14: “Observer's Day” - the day of military observers at the Wędrzyn training ground
  • June 15: Tank battalions cross the engineer bridge at Chełmno
  • June 16: DV Day at the Training Center Drawsko ( Drawsko Pomorskie )
  • June 17th: Graduation ceremony at the Academy of National Defense

War bridge at Chelmno

The construction of a war bridge over the 350 meter wide Vistula posed a particular challenge. The location was chosen because the minimum water depth here is one meter with a maximum flow speed of two meters per second. For this purpose, the exact distance between the two banks was measured and based on this size, the number of amphibians and the construction of the bridge were determined. With the help of the amphibians, larger bridge sections were coupled. The task of the 600-man multinational engineer association was to enable battle tanks and heavy wheeled vehicles to cross the water for a US cavalry regiment and a Polish mechanized infantry battalion within a very short time. After successfully building bridges, 250 combat vehicles per hour should be able to cross the water. This was made possible with an amphibious and a folding swim bridge system. German tank pioneers of the tank pioneer battalion 130 with bridge-laying systems from Minden and Havelberg under the leadership of Lieutenant Colonel Thorsten Schwiering were also involved. The tank pioneer battalion was the lead unit for building the bridge. The Minden pioneer unit, as part of the Very High Readiness Joint Task Force (VJTF) and spearhead of NATO, was immediately ready for a follow-up order.

Air landings

Gene. Elżbieta Zawacka Bridge in Toruń

The airborne troops flew 30 transport machines to their target area near Toruń . There were 400 paratroopers from the 16th Airborne Battalion of the 6th Paratrooper Brigade from Krakow , 500 American paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne Division and 230 British paratroopers from the 16th Air Assault Brigade . They took several military installations near their "Kijewo" drop-off zone during the main attack by Gen. Elżbieta Zawacka Bridge in Toruń itself. Another air landing was carried out at Świdwin by the 173th US Airborne Brigade .

criticism

During the exercise, Jochen Bittner observed deficiencies in equipment and in his report made a devastating judgment on NATO's defense capabilities: "Even after almost twenty years of joint missions abroad, the Western alliance fails to operate like a force." He quotes the US officer who was also participating. General Ben Hodges , according to which NATO would not be able to protect the Baltic states from an attack by the Russian armed forces: "Russia could conquer the Baltic states faster than we would be there to defend them." Countries like Georgia and Ukraine viewed critically. "Any mishap, no matter how small, that the Russians misunderstand or decide to misinterpret could trigger an offensive," and this could lead to a "nightmare scenario", according to a European defense expert. "The exercise does not help to create an atmosphere of trust and security," said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ International maneuver: Poland is rehearsing an emergency with “Anaconda”. In: heute.de news. Second German Television (ZDF), June 29, 2016, archived from the original ; Retrieved June 29, 2016 .
  2. ^ Operation "Anaconda": NATO holds troop maneuvers in Poland. In: handelsblatt.com. Retrieved June 9, 2016 .
  3. ^ A b Matthias Gebauer: Military maneuvers in Poland: In the stranglehold of the "anaconda". In: Spiegel Online . Retrieved June 9, 2016 .
  4. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Information about the Exercise Anakonda 16
  5. ↑ a b c / Summary Exercise Anakonda-16
  6. ↑ Kremlin criticizes major NATO maneuvers in Poland . Frankfurter Rundschau , June 7, 2016
  7. ↑ a b c d Russia reacts irritably to major maneuvers in Poland . Welt Online , June 7, 2016
  8. ↑ Exercise Anakonda 2016 - Live Fire Demonstration
  9. ↑ NATO major maneuver "Anaconda" - Now the West is shedding its hesitation . , Focus, June 8, 2016
  10. ↑ US Army Engineers Build Bridges Between Nations
  11. ↑ Electronic Warfare exercises conducted at Anakonda 16
  12. ↑ Knights Brigade flexes muscle at sustainment anaconda
  13. ↑ 10th AAMDC concludes operations for Anakonda 16
  14. ↑ a b c d Anakonda 16: Successful building of war bridges over the Vistula, German Army Portal
  15. ↑ Exercise ANAKONDA 2016: Minden Pioneers on the Way to the Vistula, German Army, Portal
  16. ↑ a b c d e Anakonda-16 / Paratrooper drop near Torun
  17. ↑ Jochen Bittner . In: Die Zeit , No. 27/2016, p. 4
  18. ↑ According to the US commander, the Baltic States are hard to defend. Zeit Online , June 2016