Gallery contains 11 images
×
Photo 1 of 11
Combined Joint Task Force - Horn
U.S. service members and partners from France, Germany, Italy, Japan, South Korea, the United Kingdom participated in the first Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa CJ-5 Directorate-led simulated crisis response tabletop exercise at Camp Lemonnier, Djibouti, Feb. 27, 2025. The scenarios included realistic constraints and challenged participants to identify opportunities for their respective militaries to support one another in the event of a crisis. The exercise demonstrated unity of action and improved coordination during disaster response efforts in the region. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Joseph Bartoszek)
Photo by: Airman 1st Class Joseph Bartosze
Photo 2 of 11
Combined Joint Task Force - Horn
U.S. service members and partners from France, Germany, Italy, Japan, South Korea, the United Kingdom participated in the first Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa CJ-5 Directorate-led simulated crisis response tabletop exercise at Camp Lemonnier, Djibouti, Feb. 27, 2025. The exercise brought foreign liaison officers together to enhance cooperation and readiness in East Africa. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Joseph Bartoszek)
Photo by: Airman 1st Class Joseph Bartosze
Photo 3 of 11
Combined Joint Task Force - Horn
U.S. service members and partners from France, Germany, Italy, Japan, South Korea, the United Kingdom participated in the first Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa CJ-5 Directorate-led simulated crisis response tabletop exercise at Camp Lemonnier, Djibouti, Feb. 27, 2025. Each participant received an operational plan and a briefing on an evolving crisis scenario to think and work through how they would coordinate with partner nations if support was required. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Joseph Bartoszek)
Photo by: Airman 1st Class Joseph Bartosze
Photo 4 of 11
Combined Joint Task Force - Horn
U.S. service members and partners from France, Germany, Italy, Japan, South Korea, the United Kingdom participated in the first Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa CJ-5 Directorate-led simulated crisis response tabletop exercise at Camp Lemonnier, Djibouti, Feb. 27, 2025. Each participant received an operational plan and a briefing on an evolving crisis scenario to think and work through how they would coordinate with partner nations if support was required. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Joseph Bartoszek)
Photo by: Airman 1st Class Joseph Bartosze
Photo 5 of 11
Combined Joint Task Force - Horn
U.S. service members and partners from France, Germany, Italy, Japan, South Korea, the United Kingdom participated in the first Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa CJ-5 Directorate-led simulated crisis response tabletop exercise at Camp Lemonnier, Djibouti, Feb. 27, 2025. The exercise brought foreign liaison officers together to enhance cooperation and readiness in East Africa. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Joseph Bartoszek)
Photo by: Airman 1st Class Joseph Bartosze
Photo 6 of 11
Combined Joint Task Force - Horn
U.S. service members and partners from France, Germany, Italy, Japan, South Korea, the United Kingdom participated in the first Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa CJ-5 Directorate-led simulated crisis response tabletop exercise at Camp Lemonnier, Djibouti, Feb. 27, 2025. The exercise demonstrated unity of action and improved coordination during disaster response efforts in the region. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Joseph Bartoszek)
Photo by: Airman 1st Class Joseph Bartosze
Photo 7 of 11
Combined Joint Task Force - Horn
U.S. service members and partners from France, Germany, Italy, Japan, South Korea, the United Kingdom participated in the first Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa CJ-5 Directorate-led simulated crisis response tabletop exercise at Camp Lemonnier, Djibouti, Feb. 27, 2025. The exercise brought foreign liaison officers together to enhance cooperation and readiness in East Africa. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Joseph Bartoszek)
Photo by: Airman 1st Class Joseph Bartosze
Photo 8 of 11
Combined Joint Task Force - Horn
U.S. service members and partners from France, Germany, Italy, Japan, South Korea, the United Kingdom participated in the first Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa CJ-5 Directorate-led simulated crisis response tabletop exercise at Camp Lemonnier, Djibouti, Feb. 27, 2025. Each participant received an operational plan and a briefing on an evolving crisis scenario to think and work through how they would coordinate with partner nations if support was required. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Joseph Bartoszek)
Photo by: Airman 1st Class Joseph Bartosze
Photo 9 of 11
Combined Joint Task Force - Horn
U.S. service members and partners from France, Germany, Italy, Japan, South Korea, the United Kingdom participated in the first Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa CJ-5 Directorate-led simulated crisis response tabletop exercise at Camp Lemonnier, Djibouti, Feb. 27, 2025. The exercise demonstrated unity of action and improved coordination during disaster response efforts in the region. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Joseph Bartoszek)
Photo by: Airman 1st Class Joseph Bartosze
Photo 10 of 11
Combined Joint Task Force - Horn
U.S. service members and partners from France, Germany, Italy, Japan, South Korea, the United Kingdom participated in the first Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa CJ-5 Directorate-led simulated crisis response tabletop exercise at Camp Lemonnier, Djibouti, Feb. 27, 2025. The exercise demonstrated unity of action and improved coordination during disaster response efforts in the region. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Joseph Bartoszek)
Photo by: Airman 1st Class Joseph Bartosze
Photo 11 of 11
Combined Joint Task Force - Horn
U.S. service members and partners from France, Germany, Italy, Japan, South Korea, the United Kingdom participated in the first Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa CJ-5 Directorate-led simulated crisis response tabletop exercise at Camp Lemonnier, Djibouti, Feb. 27, 2025. The exercise brought foreign liaison officers together to enhance cooperation and readiness in East Africa. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Joseph Bartoszek)
Photo by: Airman 1st Class Joseph Bartosze
CAMP LEMONNIER, Djibouti– Combined Joint Task Force - Horn of Africa CJ-5 Directorate hosted the first-ever Multinational Coordinating Center Tabletop exercise focused on crisis response, Feb. 27, 2025.
The exercise brought together Foreign Liaison Officers (FLO) from six partner nations to enhance cooperation and readiness in East Africa.
FLOs from France, Germany, Italy, Japan, South Korea, the United Kingdom and the U.S. participated in simulated crisis response scenarios designed to improve ally and partner integration.
A TTX is a role-playing activity in which players respond to scenarios presented by one or more facilitators. The TTX aimed to demonstrate unity of action and improve coordination during disaster response efforts in the region.
“MNCC has always been an additional duty and we are now operationalizing it,” U.S. Army Maj. Ryan Lindberg, CJTF-HOA multinational coordination cell chief. “There has been a renewed interest in CJTF-HOA to consider the entire operational area of MNCC…while planning for crisis response.”
Every FLO had their exercise token to represent their personnel and modes of transportation in order to move across the table to effectively show the plans and communication needed to evacuate their personnel in the event of a crisis. The days were simulated where each day was represented into one hour in order to practice and feel the real-life pressure of the scenarios.
“While planning this TTX, I looked at articles to research how different War Games work,” said Lindberg. “It helped me figure out how the different operations need to work with each other in this kind of scenario.”
During the TTX, each FLO received their nation's operational plan and a briefing on an evolving crisis scenario. The scenarios included realistic constraints such as limited ramp space at airfields, travel time considerations, and air operations challenges. These injects made each FLO identify potential gaps and shortfalls in the procedures and adapt to the plans accordingly.
To randomize the injects for the scenario, the FLO’s rolled dice to see which one they would have to think through.
For instance, the Japanese team faced the challenge of evacuating 15 citizens from Dar es Salaam, Tanzania while working with U.S. forces to overcome a limited number of aircraft seats.
This constraint highlighted the importance of swift communication and resource allocation in a multinational response. The nations involved effectively communicated strategies such as different flight times and the number of aircraft to complete the mission.
“It is important to establish a good relationship to work with our partners,” said the Japanese FLO. “The exercise taught us how to communicate better… because it is beneficial for us to share our communication system.”
The TTX significantly improved the participating countries' ability to coordinate and communicate effectively in a multinational environment. The exercise enabled each FLO to share their valuable experience working each other and familiarized them with different ways of approaching their procedures.
“In a Combined and Joint environment, it is very important to conduct activities as the MNCC TTX because it is a team building activity,” said the Italian Navy FLO. “During this exercise, I appreciated the possibility to share our field experience with this type of operation.”
As the exercise came to a close, many of the FLOs realized the potential issues that could arise during a crisis, this exercise specifically being tailored toward a disaster, highlighted some important lessons learned.
“The coordination effort needed to do it [disaster response] safely and efficiently must be enhanced,” said the German Navy FLO. “Our experiences need to be transferred between everyone.”
Many lessons learned and knowledge was shared amongst the FLOs. The lessons they learned will be used to facilitate a more robust exercise in the future according to Lindberg.
“We always talked about MNCC but never practiced it in a TTX,” said Lindberg. “Now that we were actually able to practice in the crawl phase, we can set a baseline for a larger and more complex crisis response exercise in the future.”
CJTF-HOA’s mission is to conduct operations to enhance partner nation capacity, promote regional stability, dissuade conflict, and protect U.S. and coalition interests, primarily in the East Africa region.
