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Download the PDF. Defender-Europe 22 is a series of U. Army Europe and Africa multinational training exercises in eastern Europe. The exercise demonstrates U. Photo by Spc. Devin Klecan, U. The battalion leadership had recently returned from a predeployment site survey ahead of what was supposed to be a routine rotationally aligned force mobilization.
As part of the rotation, the Iron Knights had been selected to participate in the U. Army Europe and Africa multinational exercise titled Defender-Europe DE22 , which would involve a multimodal road, river, and rail movement of a combined arms battalion CAB across Poland and Lithuania. However, as war in eastern Europe grew more certain, it became unclear if U. Army senior leaders would continue the exercise as planned. Tactical, operational, and strategic variables were reviewed, and the decision to move forward with DE22 was made, which resulted in a tactical mission having strategic implications for NATO forces, allied nations, and Europe.
Army-led, multinational, joint exercise designed to build readiness and interoperability between U. This exercise required the Iron Knights to enter a theater of operations, establish command and support relationships with multinational partners, build combat power, and conduct a 1, km movement and maneuver with multinational partners through eastern Europe via multimodal transportation.
The exercise culminated in a tactical deployment of all battalion assets during a km tactical road march to a U. This article highlights these lessons learned and the tactics, techniques, and procedures identified and used by the Iron Knights during DE In February , the Iron Knights loaded equipment on rail at Fort Carson and conducted download a few weeks later at the seaport of embarkation in Charleston, South Carolina.
