MASS supports major Joint Forces training exercise

Published 15th August 2017

Cohort company MASS has underlined its credentials as a leading provider of training support with the planning and implementation of a major UK Joint Forces Command (JFC) exercise at a military base in Cornwall centered on achieving over 90 training objectives set by the JFC.

Over 1100 people took part in the two-week event, which was designed to support and exercise the standing Joint Force HQ’s “Train as we fight” development with the single-service components, as well as a number of other JFC training objectives.

The exercise comprised military personnel and a range of other governmental and non-governmental organisations to help develop a pan-Governmental response to a potential developing crisis set in a fictitious region.

MASS, which is a regular provider of training support to the UK MoD and overseas military, managed a range of SMEs and provided senior ex-military and diplomatic staff to offer focused advice at the operational level to ensure maximum training value for the participants.

Planning began 12 months ago with MASS conducting the scenario writing, which involved creating fictional countries and all the supporting geographic, environmental and demographic detail.

The whole exercise is controlled by exercise directors, via a programme called TOOLSET. The Scenario Management System (SMS) within TOOLSET offers the controllers the ability to develop, monitor and control events and incidents that shape the exercise; this ensures the exercise stays on track to complete the training objectives. A range of challenges were put in place that a 'real' military operation might encounter.

This allowed the training audience to interact, as realistically as possible, with the scenario crafted by MASS to ensure the training audience could practise exercising command and control over these ‘real life’ challenges.

MASS has been supplying this support for several years to a whole raft of military exercises in the UK and overseas and has established a comprehensive group of subject matter experts who enable the programme to run smoothly and ensure the maximum benefit to participants.

The event also allowed participants to explore interactions with the media and to look at the expanding range of challenges that a modern force might encounter in an increasing complex and diverse information-driven environment.