OCTOBER 13, 2022 — The remote fields of autumn-influenced trees color the foreground on a bright Swedish Wednesday afternoon on Sept. 27, 2022. The still birch trees and quietly grazing reindeer were roused by the thunderous echoes of 200-pound high explosive M31A1 rockets launched from M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS). The U.S. Army Europe and Africa HIMARS smoke and rumble marked America’s support in the country and participation in Nordic Strike 2022.
As quickly as they arrived, those same HIMARS launchers left the area of Vidsel Test Range, Sweden, all within the same day. These HIMARS are assigned to and operated by U.S. Soldiers of 3rd Battalion, 321st Field Artillery Regiment, attached to U.S. Army Europe and Africa’s 41st Field Artillery Brigade.
Simultaneously, the Latvian Land Forces hosted other U.S. Soldiers of the same unit, and 15 other nations’ militaries. This similar combined exercise was named Silver Arrow 22. U.S. forces have long supported these allies and partners-led training events. It also served to certify NATO’s enhanced Forward Presence Battle group Latvia, which integrates U.S. Soldiers into the Latvian Mechanized Brigade, led by the Canadian Army. Alongside other training objectives, the execution of these exercises demonstrated the capability to overlap and potentially conduct infiltration in multiple locations within the European theater whenever called upon.
U.S. Army Europe and Africa provided ready, combat-credible forces and equipment for its Swedish partner and Latvian ally for bilateral field artillery live-fire training. This continues to demonstrate the multifaceted capabilities of the senior U.S. Army command in Europe while further developing interoperable solutions, and enhancing readiness and lethality.
“This has been a fantastic opportunity to come up here to the high north in Sweden, an area of growing importance,” said U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Stephen Maranian, commanding general of 56th Artillery Command. “Being able to come here to exercise our artillery skills with able and willing partners, who we look forward to being allies with.”
American forces facilitated rapid deployment and forcible entry capability with a combination of support from the U.S. Air Force MC-130J Commando II aircrafts, assigned to 352nd Special Operations Wing, Special Operations Command, that transported the HIMARS from Ramstein Air Base, Germany, to Lulea, Sweden, and Liepāja, Latvia, respectfully.
After landing, HIMARS crews then proceeded to the firing point while maintaining ongoing communications with the Commando II aircraft—who provided target information during transport, confirming those coordinates with Swedish and Latvian forces before engaging the notional targets. Finally, after firing the HIMARS’ rockets and to complete the shoot-and-scoot tactic, the HIMARS crews drove the systems back to the awaiting aircraft to secure the launchers for a swift extraction. This total operation is known as a HIRAIN exercise, or a HIMARS Rapid Infiltration exercise.
This complex exercise required a lot of planning and communications between different military branches and militaries from each other.
“Our unit’s role was to provide HIMARS to Sweden, however, we started our venture in Germany,” said U.S. Army Capt. Thomas Summerbell, a field artillery officer assigned to 3rd Battalion, 321st Field Artillery Regiment. “To get here, we did joint operations with the 352nd Special Operations Wing and utilized them to get to Sweden. Once here, on ground, we linked in with our Swedish [partners], checked radio communications, and really saw how well we would go about injecting ourselves in multiple geographic locations, and immediately proceed as an expedient force.”
These exercises featured both simulated and live training to demonstrate the U.S. Army Europe and Africa’s ability to command and control long-range precision fires across Europe, and across continents, using a variety of networked multi-domain communications platforms.
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By Spc. Dean Johnson