ABOUT 130 TROOPS from the Irish Defence Forces Corps of Engineers will undergo a Nato assessment of their capabilities in Cork this week.

The evaluation is in two phases – an initial self evaluation and then a full examination of their capabilities in November. 

The review comes as a US assessor has said that close alliances between non-Nato nations and Nato are of huge “benefit” to all countries. 

Lieutenant Colonel Ketty Reed is a US army officer and part of a Nato group visiting Cork ahead of a major exercise in Kilworth’s Lynch Camp in the coming days. 

Speaking to The Journal as debate around Ireland’s links with Nato surges, she said: “I can say as having been a military service member from a nation that is a Nato member, there’s always a benefit to creating alliances.”

It is not the first time Reed has visited Ireland and she said she is impressed with the standard of the engineers drawn from Two Field Engineering based in Athlone.

She is joined by other international colleagues in Cork this week as they prepare for the assessment. She is accompanied by Irish military officer Commandant Daire Roche who is also part of the assessment team.

The US officer said she has been observing the troops since her arrival, describing them as ‘motivated and ambitious’. 

“I definitely see that they feel that there is an importance to their work and the level of ambition from the top down is reflected in the soldiers’ motivations,” she said. 

“When they’re out, they mean business, they’re doing things. And they understand the importance of it not just to the unit, but to the service of the nation,” she added. 

The exercise is similar to the artillery Operational Capabilities Concept evaluation (OCC) which led to angry exchanges in the Dáil as People Before Profit’s Paul Murphy questioned Tánaiste Micheál Martin on its appropriateness given Ireland’s neutrality. 

Ireland is a partner nation with Nato through a concept entitled Partnership for Peace since 1999 – this gives the Irish military access to a number of capability development programmes, one of which is OCC.

US army officer Lt col Ketty Reed who is a senior member of the OCC assessment team. Irish Defence Forces Irish Defence Forces

OCC is an initiative that allows countries to be assessed ahead of feedback and advice. Ireland recently sent soldiers to Colombia – another Nato partner country – to carry out an OCC assessment there. 

The stated aim of the strategy is to bring nations closer to a standard that would enable them to work with Nato militaries. This is known as interoperability in military speak.   

Reed is part of the team that will help to assess the capabilities of the Defence Forces engineers. These are the Irish military’s experts in maintaining the needs of a camp from the electricity to the plumbing, to bridge building and mine clearance.   

Many of the troops have been preparing for a year ahead of the main exercise that will take place across the moorland of the military ranges in Kilworth.

Infantry are drawn from the midlands, while bomb disposal specialists come from Cork. 

Some of the equipment being used, including specialist demining vehicles, has returned from the Defence Forces peacekeeping base in Syria where Ireland is set to pull out shortly from its involvement in the UNDOF mission in the Golan Heights.

The bomb disposal and search team also has robotic devices and drones.

Commandant Adrian Quinn, who is the chief of instruction in the Defence Forces’ school of engineering, is overlooking the exercise and believes the OCC evaluations are not just for measuring Ireland’s abilities against other militaries but are about learning international best practice from other nations.  

He said that the evaluations were an opportunity for Ireland to reach the “benchmark” set by Nato militaries. 

“The benefits of these evaluations is that there is a real personal pride you see in the guys spending so much time to get the most out of it,” he said.

A number of sections in the Irish Defence Forces have gone through Nato OCC evaluations to date including the Irish Naval Service, the Army Ranger Wing and artillery. 

More than 100 grades must be met in the assessments. Reports are compiled from these assessment with compliments for good practice as well as recommendations for improvements outlined.