BATTLE CREEK, Mich. –
Defense Logistics Agency Disposition Services civilian and military personnel will take part in DEFENDER 2024 at Germersheim Army Depot in Germany in May.
According to the U.S. Army, DEFENDER lasts from late March through May and is the largest Army exercise in Europe with more than 17,000 U.S. and 23,000 multinational servicemembers from more than 20 allied and partner nations.
About 20 DLA property disposition team members will deploy to Germersheim, where they will construct one of the agency’s forward-based modular Expeditionary Site Sets and practice their property receipt and material handling equipment operation skills.
The Kaiserslautern-based ESS that the team will assemble has been similarly used to support a major exercise on the continent once before, when it was constructed at Camp Bondsteel in Kosovo in 2019 for U.S. Army Europe’s Saber Guardian and the NATO-led Kosovo Force mission.
Jeffrey Nofzinger serves as the sub-command’s Warfighter Support and Readiness Division exercise planner and readiness officer. He said the May exercise will serve as the agency’s primary training event for expeditionary property disposal personnel this year. Additional DLA Disposition Services annual training opportunities during the summer will see DLA military reserve members augment stateside field offices, where they can receive hands-on training and help alleviate inventory backlog.
“Our goal for DEFENDER is to deploy, set up our ESS, run real-world property disposal, and then redeploy and reset the equipment,” Nofzinger said. “It’s all about maintaining our expeditionary capability. It sounds simple, but because this is the first time we’re doing it in Germany, there’s a lot of logistics involved.”
Nofzinger said DEFENDER participants will deploy alongside personnel from DLA Distribution, which will send a DDXX deployable team. For the reverse logisticians in the agency, getting a chance to train alongside DLA Distribution offers an extra level of realism that reflects DLA’s preference to try and co-locate sub-command deployers during real world contingencies to maximize efficiency of its communications network and physical assets.
A short DLA video highlights the ESS deployment to the Balkans in 2019.
The Army’s DEFENDER exercise is nested within the even bigger Steadfast Defender 2024 exercise that NATO is conducting across the continent. The Defense Department estimates that more than 50 naval assets, 1,100 combat vehicles, and 90,000 troops are participating overall, with more than 30 NATO allies testing new defense plans and the organization’s ability to deploy collective forces quickly.
According to a statement by Supreme Allied Commander Europe Army Gen. Christopher Cavoli, “Steadfast Defender 2024 will be a clear demonstration of our unity, strength and determination to protect each other, our values, and the rules-based international order.”