APRIL 14, 2022 — As America’s forward deployed corps in Europe, V Corps led the theater-wide military exercise, Saber Strike 22, which encompassed a variety of joint multi-national training throughout Germany, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
Saber Strike is a biennial exercise between NATO and allied partners which has been held since 2010. Large scale exercises like Saber Strike demonstrate the strategic readiness of the U.S. military through integration into multiple NATO ally and partner exercises in the region. Saber Strike includes approximately 13,000 multinational participants from 13 nations such as the Czech Republic, Estonia, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, Sweden and the United States.
“Saber Strike was really the first multi-national exercise led by V Corps since becoming fully operationally capable and it was designed to test our ability to provide operational and tactical oversight of U.S. troops and exercise command and control of the formations during the training,” said Maj. Gen. Jeffery Broadwater, deputy commanding general, V Corps and the exercise director. “Exercises like Saber Strike build readiness, enhance interoperability and strengthen relationships by providing a joint, multinational environment to prepare allies and partners to train as we fight.”
Training with partner nations in Europe provides unique opportunities to hone skills and retain the ability to shoot, move and communicate as a combined arms team with allied forces. This large scale two-month exercise showcased different events including a tactical road march through the Czech Republic, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Slovakia; multiple live-fire and force-on-force exercises; rail operations from Germany to Lithuania; as well as establishment of air, ground and sea lines of communication through Denmark and Sweden.
“The real value of an exercise like Saber Strike is that it demonstrates alliance readiness, interoperability and capability. It shows that the U.S. can rapidly deploy combat-credible forces to Poland, the Baltics, and Central Europe to support our allies during contingencies,” said Broadwater. “Saber Strike is a strong reminder of our commitment to defend and secure our Eastern European allies while also serving as a deterrent to our adversaries.”
No nation can confront today’s challenges alone. Fostering relationships with allies and partners increases interoperability and ensures the readiness, agility and strength of our combined forces.
Training exercises like Saber Strike demonstrate that NATO allies and partners are stronger together and are designed to ensure U.S. and allied forces are trained, able to operate together, and ready to respond to outside threats in a multi-domain environment.
V Corps’ presence and commitment to the defense of allies on NATO’s Eastern flank will enable greater use of dynamic force employment in the European Theater, providing strategic predictability for our allies and partners while introducing greater operational unpredictability to our adversaries.
“Saber Strike demonstrated our ability to conduct operations in winter and rough terrain conditions while allowing us to build interoperability with multi-national partners to reinforce the alliance,” said Broadwater. “It allowed us to get multiple repetitions on our equipment and test our processes and procedures in a controlled environment so that we will be that much better if we have to do it for real. This exercise just further proved that our alliance is strong. I am really proud of the entire V Corps team and all of the units that participated in Saber Strike.”
By Spc. Javen Owens