P 100606Z MAR 09
FM AMEMBASSY PRETORIA
TO SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 7638
INFO SECDEF WASHDC
SOUTHERN AF DEVELOPMENT COMMUNITY COLLECTIVE UNCLAS PRETORIA 000453 
 
E.O. 12958:N/A: N/A 
TAGS:      
SUBJECT: VISIT TO SANDF 46TH BRIGADE ACOTA TRAINING 
 
 1.  On February 26, Deputy Political Counselor visited the greater 
Johannesburg headquarters of the South Africa National Defense Force 
(SANDF) 46th Brigade to witness in progress a two-week 
computer-aided command post exercise conducted under the auspices 
for State Department's African Contingency Operations Training and 
Assitance (ACOTA) program.  The visit was coordinated through the 
Pretoria Office of Security Cooperation and State Department 
contractor Northrop Grumman: Training and Simulation Group. 
 
 2.  The 46th brigade commander, Brigadier General Mahlobo, welcomed 
DepPolCouns with a briefing and led the tour of the brigade HQ.  He 
expressed gratitude for the high level cooperation between the 46th 
Brigade and the ACOTA team.  General Mahlobo told us his senior 
staff officer, a colonel who had served with the United Nations 
Mission to the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUC), had been fully 
engaged in custom-designing the command post exercise underway. 
Mahlobo said he was very pleased with ACOTA approach to training and 
mentoring and would welcome further opportunuties to work with us. 
Mahlobo and the Colonel escorted POLOFF through the varous base 
locations involved in managing the complex situation underway in the 
fictional nation of "Redland." 
 
 3.  The SANDF Colonel who guided our tour had a major role in 
designing the exercise.  The atmosphere in the various command 
locations was one of real-time crisis management taking place among 
the various teams.  The simulation units were comprised of about 
20-30 South African officers working in several sub-command 
locations and a groups of 50-60 in the command operations center. 
At each location civilian ACOTA trainers and uniformed U.S. Marines 
were advising as the South Africans made decisions.  Communication 
between the SANDF and the advisors seemed very good.  The attention 
to detail in making the situation seem real extended to role-playing 
exercises involing dealing with NGO's, media, clergy, displaced 
people, and UN bureaucracy, while managing a major engagement with 
hostile forces.  The ACOTA team's effort at projected verisimilitude 
extended to the publication of a virtual newspaper.  This attention 
to detail appeared to help keep attention levels high and engagement 
focused. 
 
 4.  The following are a few examples of the situations SANDF 
officers were called upon to manage as part of the exercise: 
battlefield surveillance, media interviews, a fuel truck accident, a 
convoy blocked by civilians, an attack on a convoy, a minefield 
discovered, a car bomb, a mass grave reported, several incidents 
requiring medevac.  The SANDF officers said the command post 
exercise was good preparation for their upcoming deployment. 
Elements of the 46th Brigade are expected to serve in headquarters 
in Burundi and Sudan peace support operations. 
 
 5.  Meeting with DepPolCouns after the tour, members of the ACOTA 
team stressed that the program's strong point was its custom design 
to meet the needs of the 46th Brigade.  The combination of retired 
U.S. military contractors and younger active-duty U.S Marines struck 
us a particularly effective approach to mentoring.  Poloff learned 
that the Marines had volunteered for TDY duty to support the ACOTA 
effort and learn about peace support operations in Africa.  The 
ACOTA team explained that while many SANDF reservists have 
experience in peace support, our command post exercise is helping 
many officers make the transition from commanding in the field to 
serving in a headquarters unit.  The team was looking forward to 
returning to South Africa to conduct ACOTA training exercises at the 
Qreturning to South Africa to conduct ACOTA training exercises at the 
SANDF artilleray and infantry schools. 
 
 
LALIME