Paratroopers from the United States Army along with those belonging to sixteen other NATO allied countries are currently engaged in large scale exercises involving airdrop operations throughout six european nations, the largest such operations since World War II. Conducted as part of the Swift Response training exercise, the airborne operations which have ran from April 21st are set to conclude on May 27th.
Taking place on the backdrop of the even larger US/NATO-led DEFENDER exercise, Swift Response has deployed to date, more than 13,000 paratroopers including some 3,500 from the United States Army alone. According to NATO, the month long exercise will see up to 13,000 airborne troops participate in conducting airdrop operations from the Baltics to the Balkans using U.S. C-17 as well as French and German A400M military cargo aircraft.
As the large scale airdops got underway, a critical concept of operations has been the conduct of Joint Forcible Entry, JFE operations.
According to US Army doctrinal documents,”
Joint forcible entry operations seize and hold
lodgments against armed opposition. A lodgment
is a designated area in a hostile or potentially
hostile operational area (OA) (such as an airhead,
a beachhead, or combination thereof) that affords
continuous landing of troops and materiel while
providing maneuver space for subsequent
operations.
In order for JFE to be effectively applicable in wartime, the scope of training operations must not only adhere to the most realistic scenario, replicating operational parameters and conditions for staging forces, keeping in mind that allied nations may present disparate training standards.
NATO stresses that “the combined joint training activities validate that the Allies possess the capacity to execute Joint Forcible Entry operations and are able to decisively manoeuvre and gain advantage in a dynamic security environment.”
In order to achieve its aims, Swift Response is putting into play six JFE airdrops involving combat troops and their materiel. The US Army 173rd Airborne Brigade, part of the 82nd Airborne division has already seen its share of action taking part in the airdrops being carried out notably in Romania and Sweden.
In Romania, attempts to seize an airbase near Câmpia Turzii saw the German Armed Forces paratroopers from the Rapid Forces Division lead troops from France, Romania, Spain and the United States. According to NATO, that airborne operation alone employed between 1,200 and 1,500 soldiers carried to the dropzone by fourteen transport aircraft.
In Sweden, paratroopers from Hungary, Italy, Spain and the United States were dropped at an auxiliary airstrip near Jönköping by US Air Force C-17 Globemaster transport aircraft. Their assigned mission was to secure the airfield there and prepare to conduct an air assault with US Army Reserve helicopters, NATO says.
Swift Response exercise locations include Estonia, Moldova, North Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Sweden, Hungary, and Italy.