ATP 3.2.1.3: CONDUCT OF LAND OPERATIONS IN MOUNTAINOUS TERRAIN – VTC WRITING SESSION
The NATO Mountain Warfare Centre of Excellence is the custodian of the Allied Tactical Publication STUDY 2643 – ATP 3.2.1.3: Conduct of Land Operations in Mountainous Terrain. As part of the ATP creation process, after a successful fact-finding session in November 2019, the NATO MW COE organized the 1st Writing Session from 9th to 12th November 2020.
Due to the specific situation in connection with the Covid-19 pandemic, the NATO MW COE organized the writing session as a VTC event, which represented a particular challenge. The response of the community of interest was beyond expectation; subject matter experts (SMEs) from 11 nations (Canada, Croatia, France, Germany, Italy, Norway, Poland, Romania, Spain, Slovenia and Austria as a Contributing Partner Nation) and representatives with Centre of Excellence (COE) expertise from 4 COEs (Military Engineering – MILENG, Military Medicine – MILMED, Cold Weather Operations – CWO, and Mountain Warfare – MW) participated in the writing session.
The structure of ATP 3.2.1.3 had already been agreed in the fact-finding session in NOV 2019, so the purpose of the 1st Writing session was to proofread the Draft, prepared by the MW COE, of Chapter 1: Introduction, Chapter 2: Environment and Chapter 3: General Tactical Principles, from a professional point of view. Thanks to the outstanding performance of the SMEs, an essential step forward has been made, so we consider this event a successful one.
The discussions were highly professional and many valuable contributions to the content of the ATP 3.2.1.3 were made by the participating SMEs.
As a result of the writing session we achieved agreement on the content of the Preface and Chapter 1, and collected input and comments for Chapters 2 and 3. MW COE, as the custodian, will harmonize the current Draft with comments and input from the participating SMEs from the nations and the COEs before the next writing session, which in accordance with the anticipated timeline of activities will take place in spring 2021 (12-16.4.2021, integrated into the NATO SEP meeting),
The MW COE would like to express great appreciation for the SMEs’ professional contributions to the project, and we hope to continue with at least the same team in the future to bring this important project to a successful conclusion.
