26.04.2012.
Students of National Defence School on a study trip to Sicily
Group of students of 55th class of General Staff School and 58th class of the Command and Staff School and teachers began a four-day trip to Sicily, with the aim to study the allied joint operation "Husky" which started landing forces in Sicily on 9 July 1943.According to Colonel Marko Zelenovic, Head of General Staff School of NDS, the study of that operation is important for comparing the experiences of the then and the current multinational joint operations and analyses conducted by the students of the National Defence School carried out during training for the highest military duties. The main objective of these activities is to establish a link between past, present and future in terms of as successful planning, organizing and conducting operations as possible.
The expert consultant during the study trip is Dr Neil Bar, a professor of military history at King's College London, a specialist for battles in the Mediterranean during World War II.In his opening remarks, he pointed out that the interactive method of work would contribute to the fruitful exchange of views such as deployment planning and execution of the said operations, and to serve as an incentive for current and future thinking on the strategic aspects of command and control. This study tour is part of a broader, two-year project in the trilateral cooperation between the Ministries of Defence of Serbia, Norway and Great Britain, during whose realisation various forms of education of Serbian Armed Forces officers trained at the general and command staff level, and since recently High Security and Defence Studies have been applied.
This group of officers in Italy are accompanied by the representatives of donor countries, UK Defence Attaché in Serbia and Colonel William English and Ingjerd Kroken, representative of the Ministry of Defence of Norway.On the last day of their study trip, during the analysis of contemporary multinational operations, experts from the NATO Headquarters in Brussels and the UK Ministry of Defence will join the students of the National Defence School.
