Operation Joint Endeavor, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's (NATO's) mission to establish peace in Bosnia-Herzegovina, is the first operation that required strategic deployment of multinational ground forces. Paramount to the success of this operation was a common understanding of NATO procedures among the countries that provided troops.
Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe is the NATO military headquarters that planned and executed the multinational support of Operation Joint Endeavor. Deployment of troops into Bosnia-Herzegovina began in early December 1995 and continued through February 1996 under centralized management of the Allied Command Europe mobility coordination center (AMCC) in Mons, Belgium. Initially, 32 nations, half of them NATO members, conducted strategic movements to ports of debarkation in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Three more non-NATO countries deployed troops to Bosnia-Herzegovina later.
The deployment phase of Operation Joint Endeavor consisted of managing, coordinating, prioritizing, and controlling the movement of over 2,800 aircraft, 400 trains, and 50 ships that transported over 205,000 tons of cargo and 40,000 personnel into the theater of operations. The magnitude of this deployment required detailed coordination among troop-contributing nations, NATO organizations, and countries along the deployment route.
The first step in planning the multinational deployment was developing force requirements for implementing the concept of operations. Contributing nations created a list of potential participants in the operation by matching the forces of their countries with requirements that had been determined by the Supreme Allied Commander Europe. Then deployment timelines were prepared according to parameters set by the Implementation Force (IFOR) commander to create IFOR disposition lists. Air and seaports of debarkation, desired orders of arrival, required delivery dates, and final destinations were established during this step.
In the second step, each nation added timelines, modes of transport, movement paths, and supply requirements to the IFOR disposition lists to create its own initial detailed deployment plan. During conferences and follow-on discussions, the AMCC provided broad planning guidance to help national movement planners fine-tune their deployment plans.
Movement Architecture
The AMCC served as NATO's executive agency for coordinating and prioritizing strategic movements into the theater according to NATO principles and policies. Each participating nation deployed forces as requested by the Supreme Allied Commander Europe. As part of the deployment process, each nation submitted its own detailed deployment plan to the AMCC. Using the allied deployment and movement system (ADAMS), the AMCC integrated the various national deployment plans into a detailed multinational deployment plan.
In coordination with the joint movement control center (JMCC), the commander of Allied Air Forces South established a regional air movement coordination center in Vicenza, Italy, to control the flow of military and contracted civilian aircraft, including those used for medical evacuation, in and around the theater of operations. The regional air movement coordination center provided aircraft landing and take-off slot times, assigned flight corridors and height bands, and coordinated air traffic control with civilian agencies.
As the executive agency for the IFOR commander, the JMCC in Zagreb, Croatia, coordinated force receptions and onward movements. The JMMC also coordinated troop and equipment movements with nongovernmental organizations, the Government of Croatia, and the regional air movement coordination center.
Transportation agencies of the participating countries and the Commander in Chief, Allied Forces Southern Europe, coordinated sealift requirements with those of a concurrent arms embargo in the Adriatic Sea. The flow of personnel and supplies into the theater by ship was the responsibility of individual countries but was coordinated by the AMCC and the JMCC.
From its movement operations center at Kiseljak, Bosnia-Herzegovina, the Allied Command Europe's rapid reaction corps directed troop and equipment movements in their area of operations through division movement control organizations, national support element movement control teams, air terminal movement control teams, and airlift control elements. The forward communications zone movement control center at Split, Croatia, coordinated reception and onward movement of forces and supplies outside Bosnia-Herzegovina. For this they relied on national support element movement control teams, air terminal movement control teams, and airlift control elements that were located at airports, seaports, and holding areas.
Movement Management Tools
Nations deploying troops to Bosnia-Herzegovina used both automated and manual systems to manage and control movements from home stations to areas of operation in the theater. It is significant to note that ADAMS interfaces with the automated deployment management systems of NATO-member countries. NATO nations with automated deployment management capability therefore used ADAMS, and non-NATO nations used other methods such as charts, diagrams, telephones, and even pencils and paper. Regardless of the method used to manage and control national deployments, the ability to report timely and accurate information was most important.
At the allied level, ADAMS helped analyze and manage deployments. With ADAMS, the movement planners were able to reduce deployment planning time, provide a standard means of exchanging plans and data, resolve differences in multinational deployment plans, and offer a common tool for preparing deployment plans for participating non-NATO countries.
Another management tool used by the AMCC during the deployment phase of Operation Joint Endeavor was the deployment status chart at left. Each country submitted to the AMCC a detailed deployment plan, which included deployment timelines and movement paths. In turn, the AMCC forwarded the detailed deployment plans to the theater JMCC in Zagreb and maintained close coordination with the JMCC to obtain the status of arrivals into the theater. As each element was declared operationally ready to perform missions in the theater, the AMCC placed a check mark in the appropriate block on the deployment status chart. This management tool was used extensively during the deployment phase to brief the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe command group and national representatives. The chart served as a single source of deployment information for supported and supporting commands.
Challenges
The four biggest challenges during the deployment phase of Operation Joint Endeavor were standardized reports, deployment plan formats, transit clearances, and personnel augmentations. Some of the nations that provided troops and equipment did not receive copies of the standardized reports and instructions for completing them before the deployment began. Still, all of the countries and movement agencies were very responsive to reporting requirements, and the deployment of forces was never threatened. However, in future operations, standardized reports and instructions should be distributed well in advance of deployment as part of the operation plan.
Since non-NATO deployment plans were not prepared in ADAMS format, the AMCC had to convert the information in those plans into a compatible format. Additionally, there were numerous changes in the plans, and some countries were reluctant to release sensitive information. However, the AMCC convinced national representatives and movement planners of the expediency of the ADAMS format for the AMCC's effort to coordinate an international detailed deployment plan. Ultimately, the AMCC obtained the information required to manage deployments into the theater using the automated system.
Ideally, transit clearances should be obtained from countries along the deployment route before forces are dispatched. However, Operation Joint Endeavor deployments began so soon after the signing of the Dayton Peace Agreement that some political issues with several countries along deployment routes still had to be resolved. In fact, some trains were already en route to affected countries even as national and NATO movement planners were attempting to obtain border transit clearances. Because deployments were multinational, and many countries required transit clearances, dedicated legal and diplomatic authorities worked around the clock. As a result of their efforts, deploying forces experienced minimal delays at borders.
The sophisticated movement architecture of Operation Joint Endeavor required movement organizations at all levels to be staffed with personnel who were qualified to perform specific missions. At the national level, movers coordinated shipments through seaports, airports, and railheads. NATO also needed movers to perform similar functions at all levels of command and in provisional organizations such as the JMCC and the AMCC. The challenge was to get enough qualified personnel from a very small movement community to fill positions at all levels to support Operation Joint Endeavor. In the end, national and NATO organizations pulled together and accomplished the mission despite personnel shortages.
Without the willingness of all the participating nations to work together to achieve a common understanding of NATO procedures, the deployment of multinational troops and equipment into Bosnia-Herzegovina and surrounding countries in support of Operation Joint Endeavor would not have been a success. Valuable lessons learned from the deployment phase of the operation will assist with the redeployment of troops from Bosnia-Herzegovina to their respective countries and will help allied forces plan and execute future multinational military operations. ALOG
Lieutenant Colonel Nicholas J. Anderson is a Transportation Corps officer assigned as a NATO movements staff officer to Headquarters, Allied Forces Central Europe, movement and transportation branch in Brunssum, the Netherlands. During the deployment of forces to Bosnia-Herzegovina, he served as a plans officer for the AMCC.