An Cosantóir

An Cosantóir September / October 2024 www.military.ie/magazine 20 | J4 UNDOF WITHDRAWAL O n the 07 Mar 23 the Government issued a direction for the withdrawal of the IRCON FRC from UNDOF in the Golan Heights in Syria. J3/5 was tasked with creating a plan and an initial Planning Group was held with J4 and other key players. J4 was tasked with the strategic planning of the withdrawal as the Logistical lead. Monthly meetings ensued from this point, 12 months in advance of the withdrawal to prepare for a logistics operation, the likes of which the DF hadn't conducted since withdrawing from MINURCAT, CHAD, in 2010. Comdt John Gaffney led the Planning Groups from the J3/5 side as the UNDOF Desk officer. In J4 we commenced planning immediately using the MDMP Process with an Ops room being established and whiteboards filled with information for Mission Analysis. As the SSO Overseas Logs Ops/Plans my team took the lead on the COA development and operational planning side, beginning with researching previous withdrawals and the lessons learned from such. SQMS Ben Dunne was 2IC, based on his previous CHAD and LIBERIA withdrawal experiences which were invaluable. One key lesson cited was the return to island and how equipment had not been taken back to Org owner stores and in some cases was in Gormanston Camp in containers for years. This expanded our planning considerations and analysis further in that we had to both physically move the Unit but also from a governance perspective ensure we accounted for the stores and equipment as per DFR S3 and ensure it was back in home stores for further use immediately on arrival from UNDOF and to manage the €20m worth of stores/vehicles. Comdt Oisín Branagan, as the SSO Inventory Management J4, became the lead for this aspect with BQMS Jake Doyle as his 2IC. Early in the planning phase we identified the need for the 3 strands of planning required to merge – Air Bridge (Personnel), Land Bridge (Personnel and Stores), and Sea Bridge (Stores). It was evident that a high degree of co-ordination between all was going to be required to ensure mission success. In these early planning sessions, the concept of the reverse RSOM (Reception Staging and Onward Movement – logs term for deployment / withdrawal to/from forward areas) was taking shape. In addition to this the inventory side had mitigated the identified stores risk of when arriving back in IRL with the advanced receipt concept, in essence DF Unit Logistics Staff travelling to UNDOF and sealing their own containers and being collected from the NSRC on return to IRL as they were on their books already, with the J4 teams taking ownership "in transit". This concept was briefed at the Q2 J4 meetings with formations and directorates, to allow all stakeholders have input and give advance planning knowledge. As a UN unit withdrawing is entitled to have the UN conduct the withdrawal, we included this in our Mission Analysis but early in the process decided against it for key reasons including the below: • We would lose control of the timelines and co-ordination (the Irish Government had set a withdrawal date and J3/5 set a cease of Ops date of 22 Mar 24 with a date for withdrawal of personnel of NLT 05 Apr 24). • In our strategic assessment we knew we would be deploying the EUBG in Q3/4 2024 at a minimum participating in an Exercise, with planning to establish a forward Logshub for the EUBG in Germany from Aug 2024 and that the armour would be required by the DF. • The DF needed to take ownership of the Operation as we had not conducted an Operation of this scale since CHAD in 2010. We needed to enhance our skills in particular with our Strategic planning for the linked PESCO Logshub/EUBG. (RSOM) This was briefed at the next JOPG and approved. As such we began the process of submitting the Annex A to UNHQ-NY. At the time (Q2 2023) we were preparing to deploy the 67 Inf Gp to UNDOF and included them in our early planning concepts. We tasked them with RFIs and to feed information back into the MDMP in particular in the area of the land bridge, the border restrictions, inventory assessments and container information (Numbers, seaworthiness certs etc.). By June/July 2023 we had established COAs and made contact with our colleagues in DOD Contracts Branch to seek approval to conduct shipping and air tenders. The cooperation between us was excellent and it was agreed DOD would conduct the Air tender while J4 would conduct the sea bridge tender and through mutual planning and J4 taking control of the air bridge post contract award to coordinate the timings of both to ensure the successful outcome of the mission. We identified the need for contingency in the contracts to allow ARTICLE BY COMDT RICHIE BARBER - J4 PHOTOS PROVIDED BY COMDT RICHIE BARBER THE STRATEGIC PLAN Vehicles in Camp Faouar being prepped for move

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