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| Mongolian Army Maj. Gankhuyag leads the Sri Lankan platoon in an after-action review. |
An important aspect is the amount of realism planners can introduce in an MPE. To ensure the training matched conditions participants might encounter on real peacekeeping missions, the Bangladesh Army provided UN-type vehicles for all the lanes and constructed a fixed UN checkpoint that each country’s platoon had to occupy and operate.
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Many participating countries introduced creative scenarios and training aids to enhance the peacekeeping experience. One of the most creative was the food distribution lane run by the Royal Nepal Army.
The Nepalese troops obtained permission to locate their lane just outside the cantonment next to a nearby village. The controllers then invited the villagers to serve as role-players processing through the food distribution point. As payment for participating, each villager received a small bag of rice in the lane – effectively making it a “real” food distribution site. The villagers were encouraged to bring their children and livestock through the lane, adding to the realism and heightening the sensitivities of the soldiers to a variety of real-world issues.
Participating platoons spent their first two weeks rotating twice through each lane. During the first rotation, they received instruction and a demonstration of the tasks. Each platoon then practiced the tasks. The second rotation through the lanes involved a scripted scenario that required the platoons to carry out tasks in a tactical peacekeeping situation. Lane controllers challenged each platoon based on its level of experience and conducted after-action reviews at the end of each lane to capture lessons learned.
Madagascar, Mauritius, and the Philippines provided military and civil police personnel, some of whom were role-players and subject-matter experts on some of the lanes, to enhance the scenario and bring back lessons learned for their nations. Others served in an observer capacity, rotating through the lanes with a platoon and providing valuable input to the lanes and platoons.
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| Mauritian police participants discuss the performance of the Indian platoon in the checkpoint lane. |
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| The Mongolian platoon checks credentials at a mobile UN checkpoint. |
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Experienced UN peacekeepers from Malaysia, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Uruguay, and Fiji served as advisors to the lane controllers and after-action facilitators, enhancing the exercise. During the “crawl and walk” phases, the advisors certified the lanes and advised lane controllers on UN procedures. During the “run” phase, they served as mentors to the participating platoons and provided after-action feedback.
Many South Asian countries are among the top contributors to UN operations and have experience across a wide range of peacekeeping operations. The MPEs allow these experienced nations to pass on lessons learned from their vast experience to countries less experienced or new to UN peacekeeping.
In addition, participants’ experiences across the spectrum of military operations added breadth to the classroom discussions and after-action reviews on topics such as applying rules of engagement in a particular environment. All the participants shared tactics, techniques, and procedures and contributed significantly to the tactical interoperability and compatibility between the participating forces.
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| The U.S. platoon negotiates an illegal checkpoint in the Sri Lankan lane. |
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