forging sabre. oklahoma sounds like better than hot mojave if
you ask me.
Fort Sill and the Singapore Armed Forces Making
Progress
10.12.2010 15:59
Story by Spc. Levi SpellmanSmall RSS IconAlerts Icon
FORT SILL, Okla. – In the ebb and flow of national interest,
forging a partnership is an art form. It must be built on common
purpose and trust, and it must be strong enough to endure an
ever-changing political landscape.
However, such matters are rather large in scale and their effects
are often removed from the day-to-day lives of those in Fort Sill
community. But, that is changing.
Together, the Fires Center of Excellence, Fort Sill, and the 214th
Fires Brigade have become an important component in the complex
machinery of U.S. foreign relations, aiding in the developing
partnership with the Singaporean government, said Lt. Col. Sean D.
Blundon, the Army Program Manager at the U.S. Embassy, Office of
Defense Coordination in Singapore.
As an English-speaking state, Singapore is a major financial hub
for Southeast Asia, and as a parliamentary democracy, Singapore
shares many characteristics with some of America’s closest
partners. It is also a member of a select group of nations allowed
to utilize the Foreign Military Sales program, he said.
As the home of Army artillery, Fort Sill is in a unique position to
provide battle-tested expertise on Singapore’s recently acquired
High-Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, said Lt. Col. Michael
Glowaski, the officer in charge of future operations at Fort
Sill.
The fire support coordinator for the 214th Fires Brigade, and one
of the individuals helping to map out future operations with the
Singaporean Armed Forces, Master Sgt. Matthew Schroeder, noted that
the SAF would need somewhere to conduct HIMARS training.
“The city and country of Singapore is on an island roughly the size
of Fort Sill, and they have about 5 million people there, so it
would be impossible for them to fire at home,” he said.
Previously held at other U.S. installations, the level of support
for the event was determined to be greatest at Fort Sill.
Therefore, the SAF’s tri-annual combined-arms live-fire exercise -
dubbed Forging Sabre - was relocated and executed at Fort Sill last
November, said Schroeder.
The CALFEX was meant to test the full range of Singaporean military
capabilities, said Charles Quirk, the country program manager for
Singapore at the Security Assistance Training Field Activity,
located at Fort Monroe, Va.
“The exercise was a huge success. It went very well,” said
Glowaski.
SAF units converged on Fort Sill with CH-47D Chinook and AH-64D
Apache Longbow helicopters, F-16 fighter jets, unmanned aerial
vehicles, M109 Howitzer Paladin leased from the 75th Fires Brigade,
and a few HIMARS leased from the 1st Battalion, 158th Field
Artillery of the Oklahoma National Guard in Lawton, said
Blundon.
While the opportunity to train at Fort Sill provides the SAF with
obvious operational advantages and share experiences with their
U.S. counterparts, Blundon does not consider the relationship to be
one-sided.
“Multinational training exercises are invaluable to the U.S. Army
because they emulate some of the natural difficulties of a
coalition environment, emphasizing the need to adapt to different
operating procedures, military and social cultures, and even
languages” he said.
“Additionally, the Foreign Military Sales program serves U.S.
interests by providing common weapons and command and control
systems to key regional partners. But, more importantly, it gives
us opportunities - if not the requirement - to develop some level
of interoperability [with other nations], which is vital to
conducting joint operations, whether humanitarian relief or
otherwise,” said Blundon.
Forging Sabre is scheduled to remain at Fort Sill for the
foreseeable future, according to Quirk, and the recent decision to
assign two Field Artillery Foreign Liaison Officers to the Fires
Center of Excellence is meant to further cement the bonds between
the two nations, added Blundon.
“The commanding general, [Fires Center of Excellence], and 214th
Fires Brigade – along with the rest of the Fort Sill community –
have been outstanding contributors to developing the relationship
with the Singapore artillery and the Singapore Armed Forces,” said
Blundon. “It is this kind of support that strengthens U.S. foreign
relations and diplomacy abroad.”
This November, the 214th Fires Brigade and Fort Sill will continue
working with the SAF in Daring Warrior, an annual training and
certification exercise conducted in the years between Forging
Sabre. But, the added significance of this event is the evolution
of the SAF proficiency on the HIMARS, said Schroeder.
“Last year, we had National Guardsmen standing in as crew chiefs
while the Singaporean soldiers operated the systems. This year,
they’re doing it all on their own,” he said.
While a momentous occasion for the SAF, Blundon believes this
transition also represents an important step in the evolution of
the U.S. Army’s mission.
“Sooner or later, the U.S. will no longer be at war, and it will be
even more critical to our peacetime readiness to develop and
maintain our ability to conduct operations in a coalition
environment,” he said. “Increasing the frequency of this kind of
training […] is one of the ways we can maintain the experience and
lessons learned from the past nine years.”
Though Forging Sabre and Daring Warrior are both tentatively
scheduled to remain at Fort Sill, the elements are in place to help
keep it here, Quirk said.
“Right now, Daring Warrior is relatively small, but there’s room to
expand it. The possibility exists of eventually integrating
American and Singaporean forces in some of the exercises. This is
intended to be a long-term relationship,” concluded Glowaski.