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Oct 5 2018

Exercise "Steadfast Fortitude II 2018"

From 17th to 28th September 2018, the NSPA Southern Operational Centre (SOC) conducted the Exercise "STEADFAST FORTITUDE II 2018" in its home base in Taranto.

The objectives for the exercise assigned by SHAPE were, amongst the others, to train specific staff of the NATO HQs , NSPA SOC newly assigned personnel and ECOLOG Company staff (Real Life Support Rapidly Usable Enabling Contract (RLS RUEC)) in managing the Capability Packages (CP) 156, 1102 and 109 equipment.

During the exercise, the main equipment from the CPs were deployed (helipad, vehicle wash rack, Role1+, tents, control access point, Rapiscan trucks M60, luggage and personnel scanners, power generators, water implants, laundry, deployable support package etc.). It was also an opportunity to test and verify in the field, the effectiveness of the Luxembourg Government provided Satellite (SAT) systems. The SAT systems provided the full communication suite ensuring C4 capabilities. The SAT systems have been received by SOC few months ago thanks to a strong and continuous cooperation between NSPA and the Luxembourgish authorities.

As a first exercise injection, SHAPE, triggered the SOC to conduct a 48 hours live exercise aimed at assessing the SOC responsiveness to a quick Notice to Move in testing the SOC's deployment procedures and staff readiness. A Mission Preparation Deployment Plan was executed with one SOC Deployable Team deploying to build up a small camp in a realistic and isolated scenario. Throughout this deployment, a Reach Back capacity was activated in the newly established SOC Situation Center allowing the SOC Commander to exercised his Command and Control function during the whole exercise.

On 26th September, a Distinguished Visitors' Day took place honored with the presence of the NSPA General Manager Mr. Peter Dohmen, the Director of Support to Operations Directorate Mr. Orhan Muratli, high rank visitors from SHAPE, JFCBS HQ, Multinational Logistics Coordination Center (MLCC), and also local Host Nation Authorities. Both the participants to the DV Day and the attendees of the exercise recognized the outstanding performance and appreciated the realistic conditions in which the exercise was conducted.