The 28th Infantry Division Headquarters has been commanding Task Force Spartan and are slated to return in the summer of 2023. Soldiers with Task Force Spartan and the Qatar Emiri Special Forces trained together from mid-May to early June during the Qatari’s annual Al Adheed exercise that demonstrated the interoperability of the two forces. The exercise culminated June 1 with a combined arms live fire exercise (CALFEX) at the Al Qalayel Training Area.
Training began at Camp Um Hawta as Soldiers with Task Force Blackjack, part of Task Force Spartan, conducted integrated company-team training internally before moving into joint field training and ultimately rehearsals for the CALFEX. Qatari and U.S. military leaders observed the CALFEX from a reviewing stand overlooking a vast desert training corridor.
"The biggest thing, across the board, was that it’s a partnership. This training is about enabling that partnership to continue,” said Capt. Ismael Rivera, commander of Delta Company, 1st Battalion, 160th Infantry Regiment, (Task Force Blackjack), a California National Guard unit.
A challenge for Rivera was that of the two U.S. platoons involved in the exercise, one is organic to his Delta Company and the other is comprised of armored cavalry reconnaissance Soldiers serving as a security force with Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 134th Field Artillery Regiment (Task Force Red Thunder), 45th Field Artillery Brigade, Oklahoma National Guard. The Red Thunder element also included sniper teams who trained with their Qatari counterparts.
Rivera noted that integrating a platoon from outside his company while also learning to work with Qatari leaders "was kind of weird at first.”
"It’s been good, though. It was a bit shaky but smoothed out,” Rivera said. "One of my biggest things was developing TTPs [tactics, techniques and procedures] within our platoon.”
The Al Adheed exercise gave Rivera’s troops the opportunity to practice maneuvering in wide open spaces. It also provided plenty of time for familiarization on firing of Mark 19 grenade launchers, M2 .50 caliber and M240B 7.62mm machine guns from atop High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicles, or HMMWVs. Soldiers trained on each weapon system and during night-time live fire and developed proficiency by firing more rounds than on a typical annual qualification range.
"We did a round robin,” said Staff Sgt. Rodney Genao, platoon sergeant for Delta Company. "For guys that have not been activated before, they had to really learn their weapons and work through jams.”
"There was a lot of excitement,” he added. "The live [fire] made up for all the hard-work and preparation.”
Sgt. 1st Class Christopher Olvera, a platoon leader with Delta Company, said the U.S. Army Soldiers had opportunities to meet with their Qatari counterparts during training events and downtime. Working with Qatari counterparts at a Soldier level helped reach the overall goal of increased partnership through capability demonstration.
"A lot of it happens naturally through guys saying, ‘Come check out our equipment,’” Olvera said. "I knew they’d be well equipped. They [the QELF] have very nice equipment.”
The CALFEX scenario saw Qatari armored personnel carriers make and then break contact with an enemy position (denoted by targets) in the training corridor. After the APCs withdrew, Qatari Rafale fighter jets and Apache helicopters supported a tank attack, after which the APCs and the U.S. platoons reengaged the target area.
"Basically, we’re the lowest level of fire initiating the fire. Then the tanks roll through, then the helicopters, to show the combined assets of the two countries,” Genoa said. "Shoot, move and communicate goes beyond language barriers.”
First held five years ago, Al Adheed is one of two annual Qatari military exercises. TF Spartan previously participated in 2019, prior to COVID limiting exercise participation. For that Al Adheed event, the 18th Field Artillery Brigade, XVIII Airborne Corps, integrated with a Qatar Emiri Land Forces (QELF) battalion for a bilateral validation of the truck-mounted high mobility artillery rocket system (HIMARS).
For the 2023 event, TF Blackjack/Red Thunder units trained with a Qatari Special Forces task force organized specifically for the event and assigned to the bin Jassim Al Thani Brigade. Task Force Spartan is a unique multicomponent organization, made up of active Army, National Guard and Army Reserve units. Through Operation Spartan Shield (OSS), Task Force Spartan maintains a U.S. military posture in Southwest Asia sufficient to strengthen defense relationships and build partner capacity.
