JOINTEX 2013

JOINTEX 2013 is the first in a series of nation-wide joint training and readiness events designed to change how the Canadian Forces train, develop and learn to prepare for future operations. The objective of these events is to achieve a joint, integrated, agile and ready force, thus leading to success in operations at home and abroad.

Purpose

JOINTEX 2013 is designed to train a Canadian-led Combined Joint Inter-Agency Task Force Headquarters (CJIATF HQ) in the planning and conduct of coalition full-spectrum operations in a joint, inter-agency, multinational and public environment.

During JOINTEX, the Canadian Forces will practice the provision and functions of national command and control, intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and sustainment while operating at home or abroad.

Strategic objectives

JOINTEX 13 supports, capitalizes on, and enhances training and readiness efforts across the Canadian Forces. It supports initiatives that enhance the level of integration across the Canadian Forces, including, but not limited to:

• developing the Canadian Forces’ capacity to lead an international operation at the CJIATF level with the 1st Canadian Division Headquarters as the command centre;
• developing Canadian Forces joint doctrine; and
• advancing the collective training agenda in operational simulations.

JOINTEX will also demonstrate the Canadian Forces’ ability to:

• command and control a CJIATF;
• conduct collaborative operational planning;
• conduct interactive training at both the operational and tactical levels; and
• carry out the procedures and apply the practices that enable national command and control, and sustainment.

Finally, JOINTEX will contribute to the identification and development of:

• Canadian Forces capability packages available for deployed operations;
• a joint common operating picture;
• joint communications and information systems;
• joint fire and battlespace management capabilities; and
• a joint operational support concept.

Background

Exercise origin and design

Based on the principle of “training as we expect to fight,” the Canadian Forces were directed by the Chief of the Defence Staff to develop and conduct a series of exercises collectively named JOINTEX to demonstrate current CF capabilities and procedures and provide valuable opportunity to enhance competencies and capacities.

It also provides commanders at all levels with the opportunity to integrate, operate, and develop the competencies, capabilities, capacities, familiarity and mutual trust essential to operational success as a joint force.

Designed to be conducted in five stages, JOINTEX began in 2010. The first four stages are complete. The most recent, Stage 4, was completed on 1 February 2013. The exercise will reach the fifth and final stage in May and June of 2013.

Stage 4

Stage 4 was designed to be conducted in three phases:

• Phase 1 focused on advanced command and staff training.
• Phase 2 involved finalizing preparatory technical aspects, lead-in training and the deployment of the Canadian-led CJIATF built around 1^st Canadian Division Headquarters.
• Phase 3 was a computer-assisted Command Post Exercise (CPX) that employed a realistic contemporary international scenario with operations being conducted within a sophisticated synthetic environment. This final phase of Stage 4 was centred on simulated full-spectrum operations ranging from deterrence to combat to security operations to planning for stability operations.

In order to replicate the geographic dispersion of the scenario, the distributed network-enabled collective training event included the participation of CF members at various locations across the country, including: Ottawa, Kingston, Winnipeg, Halifax, Valcartier and Edmonton.

Stage 5

Stage 5 is a joint and integrated computer-assisted Field Training Exercise and Command Post Exercise involving live, virtual and constructive players and equipment operating in a shared training environment. It is intended as the foundation for a standing framework of enhanced, reusable ways to emulate real-world contemporary and future operating environments.

Stage 5 will exercise all components in a complex scenario designed to train participants to develop doctrine, tactics and procedures that enhance the Canadian Forces’ ability to deliver integrated effects. Also, to exercise the Canadian national chain of command throughout the strategic, operational and tactical levels, it will replicate a coalition task force with Canadian leadership.

The most complex network-enabled collective training event the Canadian Forces have ever conducted, Stage 5 will provide participants with reusable, repeatable and predictable opportunities to develop, learn and improve together.

Stage 5 is also integrating and leveraging, on a non-interference basis, three force generation exercises, namely:

• Exercise TRIDENT FURY, conducted by the Royal Canadian Navy;
• Exercise MAPLE RESOLVE, conducted by the Canadian Army; and
• Exercise MAPLE FLAG, conducted by the Royal Canadian Air Force