RAMSTEIN, Germany - Allies meet in Poland from 3 to 19 June 2019 for the multinational NATO Surface-Based Air Defence (SBAD) exercise TOBRUQ LEGACY 2019.
The Polish Armed Force are hosting Allied SBAD sensors, shooters and control systems from the Czech Republic, Estonia, France, Germany, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Romania, Slovakia, the United Kingdom and the United States and observers from Bulgaria, Denmark, Italy, Norway and Portugal. NATO Allied Air Command, the Combined Air Operations Centres at Uedem and Torrejon and the NATO Communications and Information System Agency as well as the NATO Airborne Early Warning and Control Force will provide overall command and control support.
The goal of TOBRUQ LEGACY 2019 is to further improve the interoperability of various Air Defence command and control systems and to train multinational task forces to conduct air defence of Allied territory in a multinational environment. Shooters like the PATRIOT PAC 3, NASAMS, HAWK and various SA systems and Command and Control facilities like the Air Operations Centres, NATO AWACS, Control & Reporting Centres, Surface-to-Air Missile Operations Centres and Ground Operations Centres will be dispersed across Poland and linked via a federated mission network. The exercise culminates in a live-firing phase from17 to 19 June, when a total of 162 missiles will be fired from SBAD systems.
"TOBRUQ LEGACY 2019 provides a unique opportunity to train personnel in a range of SBAD systems organised in multinational task forces,” said Colonel Mirosław Bodnar, exercise project officer. "It demonstrates, trains and validates the current status of different Integrated Air and Missile Defence programmes and concepts developed by individual Allies or groups of Allies,” he added.
"One of the most challenging missions for Allies is to protect their populations, forces and territory against a missile threat. These complex missions require multi-domain joint operations; and flawless cooperation and collaboration among multiple nations within task forces under NATO command and procedures,” explains Major Peter Fajcik, Allied Air Command exercise staff officer and TOBRUQ LEGACY veteran. "In the next two weeks, we will use live-firing events with real Allied SBAD units defending against real Allied aerial platforms as well as command post exercise and simulation elements to achieve our goals – sharing experiences and best practises, common understanding of NATO tactics, techniques and procedures and interoperability across the sensor-to-shooter chain of command,” he added.
Story by Allied Air Command Public Affairs based on information provided by Ex TOBRUQ LEGACY Project officer