TRAINING in STAVANGER
CJOC Sola Airport Training Teams
By Torgrim Alterskjær Section Chief Budget and Disbursing Joint Warfare Centre
UDGING BY the beer prices downtown, the answer to the ques- art turn-key facilities in the "perceived-as- Europe for each and every event. The tion posed above is "No!" However, expensive" City of Stavanger, which is also cost of a temporary location could eas- if you consider the cost of setting the topic of this article. It all comes down to ily amount to around half a million Euro; up a temporary training location these two primary questions: are we to fo- atJ a minimum cost of half a million Euro cus on o perational level planning and e xe- • deploying HQ support personnel and, and deploying two supporting personnel cution, minimizing the Real Life Support thus, allocating a fully manned team to per operational planner, the obvious ques- (RLS) footprint or conduct a full-blown, set up, run and tear down CIS networks; tion becomes — how can NATO not afford common-funded deployment exercise with to train in Stavanger? all the bells and whistles? • expensive commercial accommodation (JWC arranged close to 25,000 nights in JWC's "Three Swords" What is the idea behind cost-effective military accommodations Let's look at the three main capabilities of turn-key facilities? here in Stavanger in 2011); JWC as our "three swords": The first sword With the significant increase in NATO is our perso nnel, and for this "sword" the de- Command Structure (NCS) and NATO • over-committing the scarce NATO de- mand is greater than the supply. Our capa- Force Structure (NFS) exercises and their ployable CIS resources; since the JWC bility to plan and direct exercises, produce associated costs, it is appropriate to re-visit has a ready-to-use CIS infrastructure scenarios and provide media simulations the initial rationale for constructing JWC's at all times; is unique and largely indifferent to exercise turn-key facility in Stavanger. The idea be- location. The second sword is our state-of- hind turn-key facilities is to provide for • significant contractor and Host Nation the-art technology, which is essential for NATO a ready-to-use exercise facility so as support required in a temporary facility; the NATO Alliance, enabling us to set up to avoid: and host virtual exercises to Training Au- • some functional (J) areas getting fully oc- diences from around the globe, here, at the • the one-time cost and effort of setting cupied by delivering the required exer- JWC. The third sword is our state-of-the- up temporary training locations all over cise support rather than focusing on the ►►►
26 The Three Swords Magazine 26/2014 DID YOU KNOW JWC hosts the biggest WHAT WE ARE DOING auditorium in NATO JWC provides NATO's training focal point for full spectrum joint operational level warfare
Camp Madla Photographs by JWC PAO and Jarle Vines JWC PAO by Photographs
exercise play, where they train on their years, it is true that hotels in Stavanger are room and comes with bed linen and clean- essential functions within their HQs. costly, and the national per diem payments ing services. There is also access to a gym, are higher for stays in Norway. However, Role 1 medical facility, laundry facilities, a What can we offer? even with the central European reasonable bar and a ca feteria with free internet. Camp The primary issue is the capability to train hotel prices, no NATO training facility can Madla can also offer reasonably priced single two HQs in two Combined Joint Opera- default to commercial accommodation. room occupancy for the General Officers. tions Centres (CJOCs) simultaneously with That is why JWC encourages the exercise a Training Audience of up to 1, 000 people. participants to use the Host Nation mi litary Meals: Breakfast is normally included in As for events supported within the JWC's accommodation at Camp Madla, which can the accommodation, be it military or com- Programme of Work (POW), the Centre accommodate up to 1,200 personnel. mercial. Lunch and dinner can be arranged covers the cost. For any events not support- In 2011, close to 25,000 nights were at the JWC for around 20 Euro per person ed by the core POW, HQs can still request to booked at Camp Madla at an average cost of per day. This price can compete with most utilise the facilities, in which case the JWC 25 Euro, with breakfast. If we, for the sake of locations, including field kitchens. will provide support within available means the argument, compare the cost of this to a and capabilities, and only charge for the in- low average cost of 75 Euro a night in hotels, Work-space: JWC was designed with cremental cost. this would mean a saving of at least 50 Euro Combined Joint Task Force (CJTF) e xe- a night or 1.25 million Euro potential sav- rcises around the clock in mind and the Accommodations: Contrary to popular ings for the nation. What we can say is that maximum capacity for the kind of exercises belief, Stavanger does not host an interna- we rarely max out the military accommoda- we support now is still being assessed. Our tional oil convention every day of the year, tion capacity. In 2011 8,500 nights were still aim is to be able to surge to a capacity of so finding an accommodation should be accommodated in hotels. 1,200 participants including the Exercise easier than you think. It is worth noting that In addition, unlike some other mili- Control (EXCON) with full CIS support. even though hotel capacity has gone up and tary accommodation options, Camp Madla It has helped significantly that Host Nation hotel prices have gone down in the last few accommodates maximum five persons per has provided us with access to a furnished ►►►
The Three Swords Magazine 26/2014 27 Other arguments than cost: Cost, of course, cannot be the only factor when NATO chooses an exercise location. How- ever, training objectives for each exercise must be carefully ba lanced against the cost of achievement of those very objectives. Furthermore, some training objectives may conflict and jeopardise each other. The main benefit, apart from cost, with a turn-key facility, is that NATO can conduct a very Transportation focused, realistic and demanding training, integrating all aspects of operational level planning and execution into the same ex- ercise with a very low risk of failure in the second CJOC in addition to the newly built So, the need for visitors to rent vehicles (as supporting systems. This is also our main NATO faci lity, enabling us to train two HQs some have done) is not a minimum military task at the JWC. simultaneously in separate facilities. requirement. Further, the international air- An argument against our faci lity may port at Sola is also a military airport that of- Conclusion be that it is very modern and clean, and that fers free parking, a limited ground and fuel So, if you recognise that you can save sig- it does not provide the feeling and flavour handling capacity and there is no landing fee nificant amounts on accommodation and of a tent-based exercise. We can, of course, for the military aircraft. At the Host Nation ready-to-use facilities and you don't have to turn-down the heating and dim the lights to facility of Ulsnes, there is a harbour that has rig one-time locations with CIS and tents, create this feeling. The temporary facilities been utilised by NATO ships before and as a the obvious answer is that JWC is the de- at Ulsnes that we used previously, got the harbour city, there are plenty of good facili- fault training location from a cost perspec- thumbs up for the slightly rough field con- ties to land significant loads of equipment in tive. And finally, to come back to the starting ditions and the flair of ad hoc solutions as- Stavanger, should a Nation or NATO choose point of this article, the beer you get down- sociated with exercises. However, if NATO to erect a d eployed bare field camp. town does not have to be expensive for our chooses not to use an ad hoc location, or to friends since we know a place that sells two test an agency's ability to contract for trans- Real Life Support (RLS): JWC provides for the price of one. Welcome to Stavanger! portation and provide support to a 300-500- force protection, registration, in-process- man camp (at a cost of around half a million ing, security and safety control. Further- Euros), then utilising NATO's investment in more, and this may be of interest to some, the JWC for hosting the Training Audience there are two tax-free shops where you can can offer cost savings up to 90 percent. buy souvenirs, tobacco, drinks and snacks much cheaper than those in the lively and Transportation: Local transportation is welcoming downtown Stavanger. The fresh offered free of charge by the JWC (for the air and the hiking opportunities are also JWC POW events) through the standard complementary as well as fishing in the sea. FURTHER READING To learn more about our city, visit http://www. support arrangement with Host Nation. stavanger.kommune.no/no/Engelsk/
In-processing Canteen
28 The Three Swords Magazine 26/2014