The Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), General Lucky Irabor has tasked the Army, Navy and Air Force War Colleges to institutionalise synergy in order to promote and sustain the ideals of joint operation exercises. 

The CDS gave the charge Monday while declaring the Defence Headquarters (DHQ) maiden Joint Operations Planning Exercise (JOPEX), codenamed Exercise Sky Lock 2021, open. The exercise is for participants drawn from the three War Colleges and it holds at the Army War College, Abuja.  

Gen Irabor said the exercise marks the kickstart of an enduring tradition in the country's Defence strategy. He said it would entrench the culture of joint planning in Military Operational leadership. He also said it is a vital tool in tackling the multifarious contemporary security challenges bedevilling the country.

He said the war colleges are "Laboratories and incubation centres for the production of Military Operational level plans, measurement of performance and effectiveness towards subsisting and reviewing of plans for enhanced effectiveness."   

The CDS expressed his optimism on the immeasurable amount of knowledge, skills and capacity, particularly in areas of Operational art the participants will gain from the training exercise.

In his his welcome address, The Commandant, Army War College Nigeria (AWCN), Major General Solomon Udounwa, expressed gratitude to the CDS and Service Chiefs for their "Commitment in actualisation of the exercise, after several previous attempts in the past 4 years. The realisation of the Joint Operations Planning Exercise 2021 underscores the CDS efforts to promote jointness in the Armed Forces and other security agencies.”

He also said that the primary mandate of the Services War Colleges is to build and develop capacity, basic skills of Military Operational leaders in Management of war and employment of Military power across board.  

The exercise lasts for one week. It is structured to include "Continuous situation awareness by operational Commanders, proactiveness and reactiveness to incidences, synchronisation of response and efforts of all stakeholders, the need for critical thinking geared towards effective planning and preparation, joint and inter-agencies co-operation with other security agencies as well as the importance of detailed, effective and realistic logistic planning", the DHQ stated, through Air Commodore WAP Maigida, Deputy Director of Information, Defence Headquarters. 

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