Exercise Ramstein Guard is a NATO-sponsored electronic warfare exercise series coordinated by Supreme Allied Command Europe and included in the NATO Electronic Warfare Force Integration Programme (NEWFIP). The Exercise series is designed to improve the effectiveness and capability of the NATO Integrated Air and Missile Defence System (NATINAMDS) units and train Allied forces to operate effectively in a hostile EW environment.
The July iteration involves the use of a ground-based jamming station and an electronic jamming aircraft to train forces to operate in an adverse EW environment whilst providing timely briefings and reports using surveillance radars. Ramstein Guard exposes Allies to a wide variety of EW tactics in a controlled environment and provides integrated and coordinated training to operate in hostile electromagnetic environments.
“We are conducting exercise Ramstein Guard 2023 just after the NATO Summit held at our Capital, and I am proud of my troops who have prepared intensively and are motivated to complete their tasks. We are hugely benefiting from training with our Allies and applying common tactics, techniques and procedures. Our surveillance radar operators will learn to adapt to a real-time EW environment. It will be important for us to accomplish training on how platoons interact with tactical operations centres,” said 1st Lieutenant Aleksas Vaikutis, Commander of the Lithuanian Surveillance Radar Battery.
“We conduct this exercise about 12 times a year to provide tailored training in an electronic warfare environment to Allied forces all over Europe,” said Lieutenant Colonel Fredrik Thomter, project officer at Allied Air Command responsible for scheduling the exercise series. “This is actually more of a continuous training programme the Alliance offers to forces assigned to NATINAMDS,” he added.
The focus of the exercise is on maintaining command, control, and information transfer between NATINAMDS units. Specifically, this exercise concentrates on the employment of defensive self-protection measures to overcome interference that would impact on the Alliance’s ability to conduct the tracking operations necessary to maintain a recognised air picture.
NATO Allies take every opportunity to train together, demonstrating Alliance cohesion and interoperability across all domains