Last week, during the field training exercise of the self-propelled artillery battalion (das) at the Żagań Training Area of the Land Forces in the Trzebień training area, 10BKPanc artillerymen improved their skills during the staff exercise codenamed NYSA-15. Throughout the day, personnel assigned to the command post planned the battalion’s combat operations and improved their skills at the command post prepared and deployed by the security and traffic-control platoon of the command battery.
“To maintain a high level of training of the battalion command-post command element, I periodically introduce exercises. Their purpose is to improve the skills of functional personnel and organizational cells in the process of planning combat operations and to develop command documents against the backdrop of a hypothetical threat of armed conflict,” explained the exercise director, commander of the 10BKPanc self-propelled artillery battalion, Lieutenant Colonel with a diploma Robert Wiese.
During the exercise, data for the commander’s decision were collected, studied and analyzed, and operational and tactical calculations were carried out. The participants improved their ability to prepare planning and mobilization documents and to perform operational and tactical staff tasks in the field concerning the organization of command, synchronization of operations, and combat and logistical support of operations.
While planning the battalion’s combat operations, the exercising sections analyzed the task, specifying what had to be done and for what purpose in order to accomplish the assigned task. The next activity carried out by the sections was to assess the factors influencing task completion and determine possible courses of action for their own forces.
Among the factors influencing task completion, one of the most important is the assessment of the adversary and terrain. This was conducted by the reconnaissance section, which determined the most likely and the most dangerous course of action of the opposing side in the given situation. “Our task is to provide the commander with information about the adversary and the area of operations that will enable him to make the right decisions both when planning operations and while conducting them,” emphasized the head of the das reconnaissance section, Second Lieutenant Małgorzata Kochańska.
After the battalion’s courses of action had been developed, they were compared and considered by identifying their strengths and weaknesses in confrontation with the adversary’s probable actions. The selected course of action was recommended to the battalion commander, who could then make a decision on that basis. “The main objective we intended to achieve during the staff exercise was to integrate the branches and sections of the battalion command-post staff in carrying out selected activities in the combat-planning process,” said the battalion deputy commander, Major Paweł Fornalczyk.
In addition to improving the command element’s performance of the battalion planning process during fire support for combined-arms subunits, the heads of the exercising branches and sections had an opportunity to improve their practical skills in using technical command-and-control and communications equipment. “The completed staff exercise contributed to carrying out the operational-planning process in accordance with the procedures applicable at the self-propelled artillery battalion command post, improving the practical skills of individual personnel in their assigned positions and the flow of information within the command post, as well as integrating the personnel of the individual branches and sections of the self-propelled artillery battalion command post in order to develop the optimal course of action,” concluded the exercise the commander of the self-propelled artillery battalion, Lieutenant Colonel with a diploma Robert Wiese.
The NYSA-15 staff exercise enabled the exercising command-post staff to work together and also provided an opportunity to test the skills, knowledge and level of preparation of the das staff’s officers and non-commissioned officers for planning fire support for combined-arms subunits during combat operations.
Second Lieutenant Radosław Gruźlewski