Joint Combined Exchange Training

Forces from the Solomon Islands receive instruction on the FN FAL rifle from American Special Forces

Joint Combined Exchange Training or JCET programs are exercises designed to provide training opportunities for American Special Forces by holding the training exercises in countries that the forces may one day have to operate in, as well as providing training opportunities for the armed forces of the host countries. Typically, each JCET program involved 10–40 American special forces personnel, though the number can sometimes be as high as 100.[1] The United States Congress permitted the use of funds from the military budget to be used in overseas training such as JCETs in 1991, providing that the Secretary of Defense submits to Congress annually a report on overseas training activities.

Begun in the 1970s, JCET programs were expanded in 1988 to Belgium, Denmark, West Germany and Italy. A Pentagon report from 1997, the year of a JCET in Equatorial Guinea, stated that a JCET program "involves small deployments of special operations personnel—sometimes fewer than a dozen troops—that conduct exercises jointly with foreign security forces to train the participants in a variety of areas that 'sharpen critical SOF mission essential task list... skills and enhance host-nation skills."[2] In 1997, there were 101 JCET programs operating worldwide, with 95 operating in 1998.[3]

From 30 May to 30 June 2006, a JCET program was conducted by the U.S. military involving Albania, Croatia, and Macedonia.[4] The course involved classes on "leadership and planning, rifle marksmanship and drilling techniques, close quarter battle and military operations in urban environments, small unit tactics, basic individual troop-leading procedures, and collective war fighting skills",[5] with over 100 American personnel taking part.

American Special Forces training soldiers from The Philippines.
  1. ^ Lt. Col. Ralph E. "Butch" Saner, Jr, Joint / Combined Exchange Training Program (JCET) article Archived 2006-11-13 at the Wayback Machine retrieved on March 14, 2007
  2. ^ 1997 Pentagon report.In order for the program to be labeled a JCET, the nation to which the special operations personnel were deployed to must receive at least 55% of the training.
  3. ^ Lt. Col. Ralph E. "Butch" Saner, Jr, Joint / Combined Exchange Training Program (JCET article Archived 2006-11-13 at the Wayback Machine retrieved on March 14, 2007.
  4. ^ Joint Combined Exchange Training (JCET) of U.S., Albanian, Croatian, and Macedonian Armed Forces (May 30, 2006) at the U.S. Embassy Tirana, Albania retrieved on March 14, 2007.
  5. ^ Joint Combined Exchange Training (JCET) of U.S., Albanian, Croatian, and Macedonian Armed Forces (May 30, 2006) at the U.S. Embassy Tirana, Albania retrieved on March 14, 2007.