Description Following the Gulf War, members of US Central Command's Army component and the armed forces of Kuwait agreed to participate in a series of Combined Exercises held within the framework of the Mutual Defense Cooperation Agreement between Kuwait and the United States. In these exercises, Army battalions rotate into Camp Doha for training with the Kuwaiti while brigade command elements rotate into various locations in the country to gain familiarity with the terrain to develop and practice a mutual set of defensive postures. These exercises represented an opportunity for US Army forces to work with Kuwaiti armed forces in country while at the same time demonstrating US capability and commitment to the region.
These four-month exercises are conducted utilizing the pre-positioned Army War Reserves Set 5 (AWR-5) at Camp Doha, Kuwait, to minimize the time/distance challenge of CONUS deployments. AWR-5 is a full, heavy brigade set of equipment that is ready to fight as fast as troops can be flown into theater. ARCENT-Kuwait is able to issue at least a battalion set of that equipment every 24 hours. The Army routinely exercises the equipment at least twice a year during the exercise series with brigade command posts and battalion Task Forces (TFs) from the 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood, Texas, and the 3rd Infantry Division (ID)(M), Fort Stewart, Georgia. The 4th ID(M), Fort Hood, and the 1st Armored Division, Bad Kreuznach, Germany.
Although termed an "exercise", these deployments actually constituted a continuous operational presence of American ground forces in Kuwait, with different units rotating in for periods of four months at a time. These exercises are designed to provide continued US ground presence in Kuwait, improve interoperability and battle staff proficiency between US and Kuwaiti armed forces, and enhance US military force capabilities to rapidly deploy to the region. A typical exercise involves approximately 1,250 - 1,500 US Army soldiers from elements of Headquarters, US Army Forces Central Command, Ft. McPherson, Georgia. combined with elements of the rotating Task Force (TF). The deployment typically included a battalion task force, combat support units and combat service support units. The task force, deployed without equipment, draws from the prepositioned equipment in Kuwait.
US forces participate in a combined exercise with military forces from the country of Kuwait starting March 15, 1995. Exercise Intrinsic Action 95-2 was designed to test the rapid response capabilities of U.S. Army units, and to enhance the interoperability between the two countries' forces. The exercise involved US military from the 1st Armored Division, V Corps, stationed in Germany, 5th Special Forces Group from Fort Campbell, Kentucky, and Kuwaiti forces.
Following command, control and communications improvements at Camp Doha, the base became the standing headquarters of a brigade-sized unit under Operation Desert Spring, which succeeded Exercise Intrinsic Action on 01 October 1999.
Exercise Intrinsic Action continued as an Reception, Staging, Onward movement, and Integration (RSOI) and force-on-force exercise. Reception, Staging, Onward movement, and Integration is a rigorous event for soldiers who have just traveled many hours on a crowded airplane. Hours after touching down, units account for and pick up pre-positioned weapon systems, equipment and supplies and head to the desert. RSOI readies battalion-to brigade-sized task force elements to fight shortly after arriving in Kuwait. Since the Gulf War, RSOI has become one of the most important missions for ARCENT-Kuwait.
