[Spain] Exercise Steelwall

[Bruno]

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Department of Defense
Spanish Army

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EXERCISE STEELWALL
TOP SECRET
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DESCRIPTION: Train and teach the 111st Armored Battalion and 112nd Armored Battalion how to conduct and prepare themselves in Armored Warfare, with both Battalions conducting Defensive and Offensive missions. Preparing themselves for future real war scenarios.

LOCATION: Figueirido Military Base & San Andrés del Rabanedo Military Base Training Camps

ORDER OF BATTLE: as off SEPTEMBER-1997
-11st Armored Regiment

-111st Armored Battalion​

16x Leopard 2A5​

16x B1 Centauro​

60x Leopard Crew​

60x Centauro Crew​

-112nd Armored Battalion​

16x Leopard 2A5​

16x B1 Centauro​

60x Leopard Crew​

60x Centauro Crew​

 

[Bruno]

Preparations would be done in the training camps of both military bases, an open wide field, of normal terrain, which would teach both Battalions essential training in Armored Warfare in Open Field versus a equal opponent also sporting a armored regiment.
111st Armored Battalion would split into two groups. Team A and Team B. With a Equal amount of Leopards and Centauros on each side. Both sides would use no rounds, coordinating with each other and simulating hits and misses. A Destroyed Vehicle would raise a Red Flag to signify it was neutralized.

They would position them selves opposite of one another, about one 2 KM from each other, various obstacles and structures would have been built in order to simulate a real scenario, with trees, ditches, small hills of dirt, rocks, etc. Team A would be on the attacking side, while Team B would be on the defensive side. Team B would have more time to set up defensive positions, while Team A would coordinate with themselves on the best action plan.

The Exercise would begin, both forces would start to maneuver against each other. Team A would decide that every tank would have a centauro escort to give more firepower, so that the Centauro would focus on Anti-Tank while the Leopard would focus on destroying the enemy Anti-Tank vehicles, meanwhile Team B decided to form a defensive formation in two open semi circles, in a checker form, with the Centauro in Front and the Leopards behind them, this could provide and advatange in flaking the enemy if they entered the circle.

The first rounds would be from Team A, and they coordinated their hit and misses, the 8 Leopards would figuratively speaking, fire in unision towards the possible location of the enemy. While the Centauros next to them would refrain from firing until they knew for certain the locations of the enemy Tanks.

Team B would refrain from firing, after the initial volley of Team A, no casualties would occur in the defensive side. However they would still not respond, and still wait for Team A to get closer.
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[Bruno]

Team A would confirm that all its shot missed, which would concern the main force leader, as such they would take up defensive positions, with the front of their tanks towards the locations of the enemy as it was the hardest part of the vehicles, beside each tank would be a centauro, surveying the area to mark tank targets for hit and kills. Meanwhile, unknown to Team A, they were exactly center of the semi circle, surrounded by the Team B Centauro line, which were hidden, immediately, the Centauros would spring into action, moving to close the gaps and start encircling team A, as the centauro line did this, the Leopard Line would begin simulating firing towards the enemy centauros, coming out of their hidden zone, this firing would try to cover the movements of the team b centauros. As the Leopards fired, they would score 2 hits and kills, however the rest of the shots would miss, Two Centauros of the TEAM A would raise a Red Flag, indicating they were neutralized.

Team A would have been caught of guard, and would immediately pull out facing their fronts towards the Team B's Leopards, as fast as they could to avoid being surrounded. This would prove vital to Team A, as they narrowly escaped the closing grip of Team B. However the Tank Commander of Team A would find a flaw on Team B plan, the Centauros were unprotected, as such he would order the left column to fire on the centauros on their left with the Leopards heave rounds, and the right flank to fire on the centauros on the right. He would order his Centauros to focus fire on the Leopards in front, this would prove effective, as Team B centauros were caught of guard, 3 of them would be deemed Neutralized on the right side, and 1 on the left. Meanwhile in front the Team A Centauros barrage was effective and managed to neutralize 2 Tanks.

Team B was down to 4 Centauros and 6 Leopards, while Team A was down to only 6 Centauros but still 8 Leopards.

112nd Armored Battalion was also praticing the same maneuvers in their own military camp, with the same measures, they would use different tactics to those of the 111st Armored Battalion, but would ammount to the same training.

 

[Bruno]

The Exercise would continue to be made by both Battalions in both militar bases, using various maneuvers and tactics to try and achieve victory over the other. Each commander of each force would gain valuable Intel on how to defence and attack, engaging in perfect armored warfare, this would raise they capability at out maneuvering their enemy, if and when they encountered them in a real life threatening scenario, with a strong start Team B would win the engagement forcing the attacker to retreat and surrender. After exchanging ideas and new ways of combat, they would debrief the engagement learning what they did wrong and right, after this they would switch sides, making the attacker the defender this time, and vice versa. This time they would apply a different attack tactics and strategies to those used previously, learning from past experiences, while the defender would also use different ways to defend, such as hull down and defence in debt.

 

[Bruno]

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This time Team A would win the engagement between both teams, with strong push on the attack using what the other commander had thought him, Team B proved to be effective in its defense but ultimately Team A won by out maneuvering their enemy. They would learn valuable lessons and improve on their skill on Armored Warfare especially coordinating attacking and defending key positions. Next part it would be a live fire display to train their aim, using markers across the field, this would train the Tank Crews to fire effectively and with precision while standing motionless, as if defending a position against various attackers.

 

[Bruno]

After the Tanks crews had finished the live fire training, they would have gained great knowledge and skill knowing the best moments to fire and how to fire precisely without missing a single shot, with this last training, the exercise would be concluded, the 111st Armored Battalion and 112nd Armored Battalion would have gained a great skill and training in Armored Warfare especially due to their time in training, which in no doubt would help them in the coming challenges and future battles. They would return to their main bases and begin an extensive maintenance of their Main Battle Tanks as well as a debriefing.


Exercise Concluded.