NWDC SUPPORTS LARGE SCALE EXERCISE 2023
19 August 2023
NORFOLK, VIRGINIA. -- More than 25,000 Sailors and Marines across the globe took part in the Large Scale Exercise (LSE) 2023 from 9–18 August 2023.
The Navy Warfare Development Center (NWDC) planned and hosted the exercise control group—comprised of 150 role players and 13 retired flag officers. Among them were more than a dozen active and retired senior officers. They advised the scenario runners that were portraying defense leaders and command staffers, and they helped simulate the complex dynamics of senior decision-making. Adm. James Foggo, U.S. Navy (ret.), former Commander, United States Naval Forces Europe/Africa, acted as the higher headquarters senior role player. Adm. Scott Swift U.S. Navy (ret.), former Commander, United States Pacific Fleet, acted as the exercise steering group lead. The scope of the exercise required an all-hands approach beyond the primary control team. NWDC provided information-technology support, security, exercise analysts, public affairs, and protocol expertise.
LSE 2023 was a live, virtual, constructive, globally-integrated exercise designed to refine the synchronization of maritime operations.
During a media discussion, the commanders of the United States Fleet Forces Command, United States Pacific Fleet, Commander, United States Naval Forces Europe-Commander, United States Naval Forces Africa, and Marine Forces Command emphasized LSE 2023 as the leading exercise in how the Navy and Marine Corps enhances their ability to fight on land, air, sea, space, and cyberspace in order to maintain a military force that is most effective in peacetime and more powerful in war.
“We have a responsibility and a duty to be able to respond globally to threats and vulnerabilities to peer adversaries and competitors,” said Adm. Daryl Caudle, Commander, United States Fleet Forces Command. “And the way you get great at that is to practice with exercises like LSE 2023.”
LSE 2023 spanned 22 time zones. It included participants from the United States Fleet Forces Command, United States Pacific Fleet, United States Naval Forces Europe-Africa Command, Marine Forces Command, United States Marine Corps Forces Europe and Africa, United States Marine Corps Forces Pacific, and seven United States numbered fleets—Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, and Tenth.
LSE 2023 incorporated live units underway, which ranged from aircraft carriers to submarines, shore logistic support units, and more than 30 virtual units. This included pier-side participation from ships and training facilities and staff headquarters from around the world.
From the strategic level with combatant commanders down to the hands-on training on the tactical level, this exercise encompassed a wide range of training for the Navy and Marine Corps.
“We are a global, responsive Navy operating dynamically within the joint force, ready to respond to threats against our nation,” said Adm. Samuel Paparo, Commander, United States Pacific Fleet. “Our competitors are increasingly cooperating and operating further afield. This underscores the importance of exercises like LSE to hone our ability to find, track, and monitor potential threats and coordinate globally.”