US Army HIMARS part of Sweden and Latvia exercises | Article
VIDSEL, Sweden — The distant fields of fall-influenced trees color the foreground on a bright Swedish Wednesday afternoon, Sept. 27, 2022. The still birch trees and quietly grazing reindeer were awakened by the thunderous echoes of 200-pound high-explosive M31A1 rockets launched from M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS ). US Army Europe and Africa HIMARS’ smoke and rumble marked US support in the country and participation in Nordic Strike 2022.
As quickly as they arrived, the same HIMARS launchers left the area at Vidsel Test Range, Sweden, all within the same day. These HIMARS are assigned and operated by US soldiers from the 3rd Battalion, 321st Field Artillery Regiment, attached to US Army Europe and the 41st Field Artillery Brigade Africa.
At the same time, the Latvian ground forces received other US soldiers from the same unit and military personnel of 15 other nations. This similar combined exercise was named Silver Arrow 22. US forces have long supported these allied and partner-led training events. It also served to certify NATO’s enhanced Forward Presence Battle Group Latvia, which integrates American soldiers into the Latvian Mechanized Brigade, led by the Canadian Army. Alongside other training objectives, the conduct of these exercises demonstrated the ability to overlap and potentially conduct infiltration in multiple locations within the European theater whenever called for.
US Army Europe and Africa provided ready, credible combat forces and equipment to its Swedish partner and Latvian allies for bilateral direct fire field artillery training. This continues to demonstrate the multi-faceted capability of senior US Army leadership in Europe while developing interoperable solutions and increasing readiness and lethality.
“This has been a fantastic opportunity to come up here to the high north of Sweden, an area of growing importance,” said U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Stephen Maranian, commanding general of the 56th Artillery Command. “To be able to come here to exercise our artillery skills with capable and willing partners, with whom we look forward to being allies.”
US forces facilitated rapid deployment and forcible entry capabilities with a combination of support from US Air Force MC-130J Commando II aircraft, assigned to the 352nd Special Operations Wing, Special Operations Command, which transported HIMARS from Ramstein Air Base, Germany, to Luleå, Sweden and Liepāja , Latvia, respectfully.
After landing, the HIMARS crews then proceeded to the launch site while maintaining ongoing communications with the Commando II aircraft – which provided target information in transit, confirming these coordinates with Swedish and Latvian forces before engaging the intended targets. Finally, after firing the HIMARS rockets and to complete the shoot-and-shoot tactic, the HIMARS crews drove the systems back to the waiting aircraft to secure the launchers for a quick extraction. This overall operation is known as a HIRAIN exercise or a HIMARS Rapid Infiltration exercise.
This complex exercise required a lot of planning and communication between different military branches and militaries from each other.
“Our unit’s role was to provide HIMARS to Sweden, but we started our venture in Germany,” said US Army Capt. Thomas Summerbell, a field artillery officer assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 321st Field Artillery Regiment. “To get here, we did joint operations with the 352nd Special Operations Wing and used them to get to Sweden. Once here, on the ground, we linked to our Swedish [partners]checked radio communications and really saw how well we would go about injecting ourselves into multiple geographic locations and immediately proceeding as an auxiliary force.”
These exercises included both simulated and live training to demonstrate US Army Europe and Africa’s ability to direct and control long-range precision fires across Europe and across continents, using a variety of networked multi-domain communications platforms.
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