NAPLES, Italy -- Meteorologists from across the Alliance gathered at Allied Joint Force Command Naples for a co-ordination workshop in preparation for Exercise Trident Juncture 2018, May 8 to 9, 2018.
The workshop provided a forum to discuss data requirements, connectivity and technical issues, command and control architecture, and divisions of responsibility related to the meteorological and oceanographic, or METOC, support for the exercise later this year. Personnel from the Norwegian Meteorological Institute, Canadian Joint Meteorological Centre, Italian Meteorological Operations Centre, Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe, 1st German-Netherlands Corps, Air Command and JFC Naples participated.
Seminar organizers said weather has a profound effect on military operations and, in particular, at the operational level, the planning process that surrounds the formulation of an operation or exercise.
Canada is the nation responsible for providing all of the raw weather data to NATO for the next two years, allowing the METOC community from across the Alliance to use that data to forecast the weather and brief the impact on operations to their respective command groups. With Trident Juncture 2018 taking place largely in Norway, experts say coordination between METOC staff from both Canada and Norway is essential in order to deliver the required support for the exercise.
During the exercise, Norway will act as the official "assisting nation” providing additional data and host nation expertise to facilitate the exercise. Cold wintry weather and the impact on operations across the air, land, and maritime domains will have to be closely monitored and briefed throughout the entirety of the exercise, not only to support the participating forces from JFC Naples and across the Alliance, but particularly the Joint Logistics Support Group who will be deployed in theatre before the exercise begins and after it concludes.
Attendees were welcomed by U.S. Air Force Colonel Margaret Romero, deputy director of the Joint Operations Center at JFC Naples. The event was hosted by the METOC section head, Italian Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Luigi Verzelletti, and his team at JFC Naples.
The METOC team at JFC Naples produces daily weather forecasts for the command group focusing on current exercises and operations such as Operation Sea Guardian and the Kosovo Force.
Story by JFC Naples METOC