STAVANGER, Norway – NATO’s senior military staff, content developers from across the Alliance, national representatives and additional external sources convened at the Joint Warfare Centre (JWC) from January 23 to 26 to participate in the Main Events List/Main Incidents List (MEL/MIL) Strategy Workshop (SWS) for NATO Exercise STEADFAST JUPITER 2023 (STJU23).
Scheduled by Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE) and directed by the JWC, STJU23 is designed to strengthen low- and high-intensity warfighting skillsets of the NATO Command and Force Structure Headquarters in all domains, using multiple joint operations area (JOA) scenarios.
In his opening remarks, Brigadier General Mark A. Cunningham, the JWC’s Deputy Commander and Chief of Staff, highlighted the significant increase in the level of ambition, scale and complexity targeted for STJU23.
“STEADFAST JUPITER 2023 will be the largest and most complex undertaking in NATO in recent history and an excellent opportunity for us to test NATO’s responsiveness, command and control, and defense posture in a highly challenging multi-threat environment, based on a simulated Article 5 scenario. As always, the JWC is working to make NATO better through the delivery of challenging exercises which train NATO Commands in a compelling and realistic environment,” Brigadier General Cunningham said.
STJU23 focuses on collective defence across the whole spectrum of NATO’s 360-degree approach to security. It is guided by NATO’s two main concepts, the Deterrence and Defence of the Euro-Atlantic Area (DDA) and the NATO Warfighting Capstone Concept.
Although the exercise primarily focuses on the joint operational level, it will be conducted at four levels, including the strategic and operational levels, as well as the tactical and second-tactical levels for both component- and corps-level operations.
Brigadier General Mark A. Cunningham, the JWC’s Deputy Commander and Chief of Staff
(From left, back row) Brigadier General Gunnar Bruegner, Brigadier General Valentin Brinzei, Major General Andreas Hannemann, Brigadier General Jonathan Biggart (From left, front row) Major General Gianluca Ercolani, Lieutenant General Luis Lanchares, Lieutenant General Hubert Cottereau, Brigadier General Mark A. Cunningham
“STEADFAST JUPITER 2023 will be the largest and most complex undertaking in NATO in recent history and an excellent opportunity for us to test NATO’s responsiveness, command and control, and defense posture in a highly challenging multi-threat environment, based on a simulated Article 5 scenario. As always, the JWC is working to make NATO better through the delivery of challenging exercises which train NATO Commands in a compelling and realistic environment.”
- Brigadier General Mark A. Cunningham
The workshop will inform future planning for STJU23
The year 2023 brings great excitement to the JWC, as emphasized by Brigadier General Cunningham. While also celebrating 20 years in Norway, "the Centre will be delivering NATO’s largest command post exercise in recent memory,” the Brigadier General said.
The primary aim of the JWC-led MEL/MIL Strategy Workshop was to coordinate and produce strategic- and operational-level challenges to support STJU23’s ambitious training objectives and, concurrently, develop initial storylines built upon the existing scenario modules, which will be introduced to the training audiences during the CPX execution.
Lieutenant Colonel Martin, the JWC’s Chief Content for STJU23, underlined the importance of the content development process during the ongoing exercise planning phase, which begun approximately a year ago.
Martin explained that the success of the CPX relied upon the scripted content at the workshop, as it would “inform future planning events of STJU23”.
He said: “The aim of this workshop was to obtain consensus among all levels of headquarters and national representatives for the development of strategic and operational challenges to support the conception of incidents and storylines for future content development. The level of expertise and the engagement of the training audiences, supported by JWC content enablers like Content, Scenario and Opposing Forces (OPFOR) Branches, as well as analysts, has resulted in credible and challenging initial content which will bring this exercise to life.”
Martin explained that the long-planned, defensive exercise would range from small joint operation to major joint operation-plus scale, involving over 20 training audiences, including the NATO Response Force 2024 (NRF24).
In addition to the eleven NATO Flag Officers, participation to the JWC-led workshop included commands and organizations such as SHAPE, Joint Force Command Brunssum, Joint Force Command Naples, Joint Force Command Norfolk, Allied Rapid Reaction Corps, Naval Striking and Support Forces NATO, NATO Command and Control Centre of Excellence and United States European Command, amongst others.
Exercise STEADFAST JUPITER 2023 will range from small joint operation to major joint operation-plus scale, involving over 20 training audiences, including the NATO Response Force 2024 (NRF24).
Photos from the workshop
Lieutenant Colonel Martin, the JWC's Chief Content for STJU23
