Military.com
June 1, 2023

Griffin Shock Sends ‘Clear Message’ on NATO Strength Amid War in Ukraine

How long will it take for the U.S. Army’s V Corps to deploy a brigade to Eastern Europe and begin conducting operations alongside NATO allies? Less than a week.

That’s what was demonstrated by Operation Griffin Shock, a new exercise that took place in Poland over two and a half weeks in May. The U.S. ally played host to a scenario in which a battalion was rapidly expanded by allied units to a brigade.

Involving more than 3,000 soldiers from eight U.S. units and their enablers, and four other NATO countries – Poland, Romania, Croatia and the U.K., the exercise gave soldiers and officers at all levels experience building up forces swiftly and transitioning to combat.

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“When we look at armies that perform well in combat, they tend to be armies that train in war-like conditions at echelon,” said retired Maj. Gen. Patrick Donahoe….”Usually, simulations play a large role in this training, especially at the higher echelons. But the U.S. learned in the Cold War that nothing replaces the actual moving of heavy metal and engaging in force on force fights.”

Donahoe said that hard-fought battles in Korea and Vietnam underlined the importance of unit preparedness during the Cold War, and inspired the Reforger and Team Spirit exercises in Europe and Korea, respectively. One exercise, Reforger 88, was reported to have involved more than 125,000 soldiers, the largest maneuver force active in Europe at that time since WWII.

Combat in Ukraine has involved numerous brigades and tens of thousands of soldiers. The U.S. military hasn’t seen fighting at that scale for decades, and is rebuilding the capacity to operate quickly and effectively with its NATO partners.

Photo: U.S. Army National Guard.