site.btaAutumn 2015 Command Post Exercise is Underway at Charalitsa Military Training Complex

Autumn 2015 Command Post Exercise is Underway at Charalitsa Military Training Complex

Sofia, October 28 (BTA) - A national command post exercise codenamed Autumn 2015 is being conducted at three levels in the Charalitsa National Military Training Complex in Sofia Region until October 30, the Defence Ministry reported. The scenario of the exercise is based on a crisis between fictitious neighbouring countries.

The computer-aided event is designed to test the readiness of Armed Forces commanders and staffs to plan and carry out a Joint Forces operation and assess their operating capabilities. During the exercise, the Air Force Staff will be certified for its capacity to conduct combat operations.

Autumn 2015 involves units and staffs from the Joint Forces Command, commands and formations from individual armed services, Defence Ministry directorates, and services directly accountable to the Minister of Defence. This is the first such event to involve the NATO Force Integration Unit in Bulgaria, which was activated in early September, and a team from the Allied Joint Force Command Naples, led by its Deputy Commander, Lieutenant-General Alain Parent. The Naples team is providing methodological assistance to the NATO Force Integration Unit.

The exercise is led by Lieutenant-General Konstantin Popov, Deputy Chief of Defence, and its director is Commodore Kiril Mihailov, Head of the Operations and Training Directorate.

The exercises of the Autumn series are conducted once every three years to examine the training level and command efficiency at the three levels of the command chain: strategic, operating and tactical.

The venue of the exercise, the Charalitsa Complex, was visited on October 27 by Deputy Defence Minister Dessislava Yossifova, Permanent Secretary of Defence Dobromir Totev, Parliament's Defence Committee Chairman, General Miho Mihov (Ret.), secretaries and security advisers from the President's Administration and the Council of Ministers, and officials from the Foreign Ministry and the State Agency for National Security.