UITC

USAREUR-AF International Tank Challenge

U.S. Army Europe and Africa, along with our NATO and Partner Allies, annually host a Tank Challenge. This training event is designed to give participating nations a dynamic and productive environment in which to foster military partnerships, form Soldier-level relationships, and share tactics, techniques and procedures.

The European International Tank Challenge was formerly known as the Strong Europe Tank Challenge. Images, video and stories that are older will appear under that name further down the timeline.

For more imagery, videos and news visit our DVIDS feature page at: USARUER International Tank Challenge

Read the Press Release here.

Images

Videos

Video by OR-8 Dennis Tappe

Trident Juncture 2018 Press Conference

Allied Joint Force Command Naples

July 3, 2018 | 5:18

TRJE 18 PRESS CONFERENCE |

U.S. Navy Admiral James Foggo 00:00 - 00:28 |

This is a complex Exercise. Our planning phase or Crisis Response Planning is complete – that’s here in the Headquarters where we do, structurally, walk through the exercise. We lay out charts, maps, we VTC in all the key-players from Maritime, Air , Land components and we walk through the LIVEX portion of the Exercise and the Command Post portion of the Exercise. |

U.S. Navy Admiral James Foggo 00:29 - 01:01 |

Norway is an exceptionally good training ground improving area for an Exercise of this magnitude. Furthermore, Norway has been a faithful member of the NATO Alliance from the beginning. The Secretary General of NATO is your former Prime Minister. We are excited about having the opportunity to train in a very challenging archipelago where coming ashore is not easy. |

U.S. Navy Admiral James Foggo 01:02 - 01:10 |

To reinforce a close NATO ally and partner, in an Article 5 scenario where sovereignty has been violated. |

Norwegian Navy Admiral Haakon Bruun-Hanssen 01:11 - 01:34 |

To us it was important to bring focus back to the High North, to Norway, to the concept of reinforcement within NATO and that is why we volunteered to host Trident Juncture 2018, because we believe we have something to offer and we have something to gain from it as well. |

Norwegian Navy Admiral Haakon Bruun-Hanssen 01:35 - 02:02 |

One of the benefits in Norwegian eyes is to make sure that NATO allies also experience and learn to master the specific environment we have which in the timeframe of October/November can be a lot of rain, it could be snow, it’s going to be cold, it’s going to be windy. It’s challenging just to survive in the environment, let alone conduct and operate a military unit. |

Canadian Army Lieutenant-General Christian Juneau 02:03 - 02:32 |

The deployment and redeployment of the forces will be challenging and in terms of logistics, we are going to learn some very good lessons because, basically, very few countries can drive to Norway. They have to come by sea or by air and that will present challenges in itself on top of the climate and the road network that is also, from the land perspective, presenting challenges with many choke points and limited large roads on main supply routes. |

U.S. Navy Admiral James Foggo 02:33 - 03:07 |

At any time that a NATO ally or partner would be threatened we will respond, that is the purpose of Article 5 and so we are exercising our right to do a military training exercise of a credible magnitude in order to practice the defense and deterrence of a full set-off. That can be extrapolated anywhere else in theatre that NATO extends its broad reach from the North to the East down to the South. |

Norwegian Navy Admiral Haakon Bruun-Hanssen 03:08 - 03:35 |

It’s our sovereign territory and we are capable of and entitled to do any military exercise on our sovereign territory, wherever we want and whenever we want – but we adhere to the international agreements where we inform each other about the exercises, particularly when we pass certain thresholds. NATO Exercise Trident Juncture is an Exercise like that. |

U.S. Navy Admiral James Foggo 03:36 - 04:03 |

There should not be any concern on any member or non-member of a NATO Alliance about Trident Juncture because we will have observers from the OSCE, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, Russia is a member of the OSCE and they will be offered an opportunity to observe the exercise. Pretty transparent when it comes to western standards. |

U.S. Navy Admiral James Foggo 04:04 - 04:21 |

Norway was invaded once and the lesson that it took away from that was that it can’t go it alone, they need friends, whether it’s the United States or any other member of the Alliance – we are stronger together as an Alliance. |

Norwegian Navy Admiral Haakon Bruun-Hanssen 04:22 - 04:47 |

This is an Exercise where all 29 countries participate and from a Norwegian point of view it is difficult to find more solid evidence that the solidarity in the Alliance is very good. It is not just a showing of force, but it is also showing that we are capable of working together, we are a formidable force if ever needed and can always be counted on. |

U.S. Navy Admiral James Foggo 04:48 - 05:04 |

One of the most exciting things about this Exercise and one that will be the most challenging for us will be the volume of personnel and the amount and capacity of equipment that will be moving in a short period of time to the country of Norway - we talk about all those vehicles and greater than 40,000 troops. |

Norwegian Navy Admiral Haakon Bruun-Hanssen 05:05 - 05:18 |

It’s the first time we exercise to such a scale as we are doing now. Making sure that we are capable of delivering what NATO allies expect from us is a very important part of the exercise to Norway. |