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On Nov. 13th, the U.S. and Israel wrapped up the largest bilateral exercise in the history of their long-standing military relationship.   The U.S. European Command-led exercise Austere Challenge 12 was the sixth large scale exercise the two countries have held together.  This exercise, in planning for two years, was designed as a bi-lateral air defense exercise, and was held in four countries; the U.S., Israel, Germany and the United Kingdom.   More than 3500 U.S. personnel including all three elements of the Joint Enabling Capabilities Command, and 1000 Israeli Defense Force personnel participated in various locations.  The exercise included both field and command post training and, although largely simulated, there was a short live-fire exercise at the conclusion of the event. Ultimately, the purpose of the exercise was to improve the combined missile defense training and overall interoperability of USEUCOM and the IDF.

AC12 is part of a long-standing agreement between USEUCOM and the IDF to hold bilateral training exercises on a regular basis.  For the first time ever, USEUCOM and the IDF stood up a Combined Public Information Center, located in Israel and staffed by public affairs officers from the IDF, USEUCOM Public Affairs Office and from the Joint Public Affairs Support Element, a subordinate command of the Joint Enabling Capabilities Command, located in Norfolk, Va.  U.S. Army Lt. Col. Paul Hayes and U.S. Marine Corps Capt. Clint Gebke of JPASE deployed to Israel to lead real-world and exercise public affairs efforts for this USEUCOM exercise. 

Although the primary focus of the exercise was joint air defense interoperability, the importance of public affairs interoperability was also evident in the standup and manning of the first CPIC.  Hayes served as USEUCOM’s lead PAO in Israel during the exercise,  coordinating all exercise and real-world media coverage with IDF public affairs officers.  

Hayes talked about his experience, “As the co-lead of the CPIC, I worked on a daily basis with my IDF counterpart.  Deploying to Israel was not only great cultural awareness training- it was also an outstanding experience to work with a group of highly professional, seasoned and experienced public affairs officers.”  

U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Chris Hemrick of the USEUCOM PAO, also blogged on USEUCOM’s homepage, addressing his time in the CPIC, “…The IDF PAOs here have been extremely welcoming and gracious hosts.  Personally, I found it interesting how all but one of our Israeli PA colleagues are reservists, almost all speak excellent English (some even with no accents) and several are dual citizens, having lived in the U.S. for the first portion of their lives before moving here to become Israeli citizens.”

The exercise was deemed a success by all parties, "Austere Challenge 12 was tremendously successful on several levels," said U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. Craig Franklin, the Third Air Force commander and commander of Joint Defense Forces-Israel in an article by the USEUCOM PAO.  "We made great strides in improving our tactics and our command and control processes. Most importantly though, we reinforced our already strong US-IDF relationships. From our most senior commanders to most junior enlisted troops, we proved once again there is clearly no substitute for training side-by-side with our Israeli partners.”

In addition to providing scenario based public affairs support during the exercise, the JPASE team also provided real world public affairs support.

”One of the greatest benefits I received from this exercise was the fact that I worked with our Israeli counterparts in two distinct environments,” said Gebke. “We worked together on exercise related scenario problems, but I was also able to work with them through real world media events that were taking place during our time there. It was a great learning experience on many levels.”

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