U.S. Leads 4,000-Troop NATO Drills With Eastern European Client States

U.S. Army Europe
April 22, 2014
Combined Resolve II to exercise Army’s European Rotational Force
By 7th Army Joint Multinational Training Command Public Affairs

GRAFENWOEHR, Germany: The U.S. Army’s European Rotational Force will participate in a major exercise alongside NATO allies and partner-nation forces at the Army’s Grafenwoehr and Hohenfels Training Areas in southeastern Germany, May 1-June 30, 2014.
Exercise Combined Resolve II will include more than 4,000 participants from 13 nations, including Albania, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, France, Georgia, Hungary, Lithuania, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia and the U.S.
Combined Resolve II will be the largest scheduled multi-national exercise in Europe in 2014, said Brig. Gen. Walter Piatt, commanding general of the 7th Army Joint Multinational Training Command in Grafenwoehr.
“Of the 4,000 Soldiers, over 50 percent are multinational,” said Piatt. “We’ve done larger exercises in the past, but this is the first time all the forces will be together in one place under a single brigade task organization.”
The U.S. rotational force will consist of the 2nd Battalion, 5th Cavalry Regiment, a unit of the 1st Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, the brigade combat team designated as the Army’s regionally-aligned force for the U.S. European Command.
Combined Resolve II will also mark the first use of the Army’s European Activity Set, a group of combat equipment and vehicles pre-positioned at the Grafenwoehr Training Area to outfit and support rotational forces when they arrive in Europe. The set includes the most updated versions of the Army’s M1A2 Abrams tanks and M2 Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicles.
The first phase of Combined Resolve II will include force-on-force maneuver training at the Army’s Joint Multinational Readiness Center in Hohenfels. The 2-5 CAV will then move to Grafenwoehr for gunnery training, culminating in a unique multi-national, live-fire exercise that will blend virtual, simulated and maneuver forces to replicate a complex operating environment.