BRABAT 22 is assessed and receives certification
As part of a continuous improvement of the assessment and certification processes of troops and individual soldiers for Peace Missions, and deeply restructuring the specific process of the Brazilian Battalion (BRABAT), the Brazilian Peace Operations Joint Training Center (CCOPAB, acronym in Portuguese) coordinated, under the guidance of the Land Operations Command (COTER, acronym in Portuguese), the pre-deployment advanced field exercise (EAOP, acronym in Portuguese). On 27 April, CCOPAB completed the assessment of the 22nd contingent of the Brazilian Battalion; thus, certifying 100% of the troops involved in the exercise.
The training of BRABAT was crowned by EAOP, which was for the first time executed for two weeks, providing CCOPAB with conditions to assess BRABAT 22 and certify all the training. In order to do so, the Center used parameters set by the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations (UN DPKO), especially those established for the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH, acronym in French).
The 1st phase, focusing on the assessment and certification of squads and platoons, provided conditions for the commanders of those fractions to exercise leadership and decison-making fast enough to accomplish the mission well.In this phase, all the 12 platoons and 36 squads were assessed in the different operational tasks set by the UN for a PKO. The commanders of the battalion and subunit had then the conditions to follow the actions of their subordinates and could exercise their action of command as well.
The 2nd phase, focusing on the assessment and certification of Subunit Commanders and Staff-Officers Sections, was extremely important for the exercise of command by commanders of all levels and, above all, to check the functioning of all the operational systems of the Battalion integrating all the sections.Thus, the Staff Officers and the Subunit of BRABAT 22 were assessed and certified. It was possible to check, by means of a very realistic training, the interactions among the Subunits, either detached or not, the battalion and the superior echelon (Force Commander, Ministry of Defense, the Army Command etc.).
The crowning of the exercise was the operations that all BRABAT 22 had to be involved in sync and coordinated actions, demanding actions of command and leadership from all levels, indispensable for any UN Peace Mission.
At last, it can be asserted that through all the parameters set for troop assessment, BRABAT 22 is 100% ready to be deployed in MINUSTAH. Therefore, Brazil gives another step to guarantee its access to the elite group of countries which has a Certifying Training Center, following the standards established by UN DPKO.
Translation:CPT ISRAEL
