Unit Name: | Multinational Centre of Excellence for Mountain Warfare Večnacionalni center odličnosti za gorsko bojevanje |
Dates: | 2011 (established) 2015 (finish) |
Country: | Slovenia (Framework nation) Participating nations: * Austria * Hungary * Italy |
Allegiance: | NATO |
Type: | Mountain Infantry Ski warfare |
Role: | Military education |
Command Structure: | Doctrine, Development, Educational and Training Command Allied Command Transformation |
Garrison: | Bohinjska Bela, Slovenia |
Website: | Official Webpage |
Commander1: | Colonel Boštjan Blaznik |
Commander1 Label: | Head of Centre |
Multinational Centre of Excellence for Mountain Warfare (MN COEMW; Slovenian: Večnacionalni center odličnosti za gorsko bojevanje) is one of NATO Centres of Excellence, located in Bohinjska Bela, Slovenia. It is "responsible for training individuals and units for operation in the mountains and other terrains difficult to pass".[1]
Currently Centre is not fully accredited;[2] full accreditation is planned for 2015.[3]
MN COEMW is based on the Slovenian Military Mountain School, which was formed in 1996.[4] In 2004 school was chosen as site of future COE.[5]
On 15 November 2011 Slovenia (as a Framework nation) signed cooperation agreement with Austria, Hungary and Italy (as a Participating nations) regarding training of soldiers from these three countries in Bohinjska Bela; with this Centre was upgraded to multinational level.[6] Also several other countries (Germany, Turkey, Canada and Croatia) are currently planning to apply for the membership.[7]
Primary mission of the Centre is "to support the transformation of the forces and assets of mountain warfare".[8] The four core working areas are as follows: (1) education and training, (2) doctrine and concept development, (3) capability development and support to experimentation and (4) lessons identified and lessons learned processes.[9]
Currently Centre provides following courses: Military Mountaineering, Combat Decision-Making in the Mountains, Small Unit Tactics in the Mountains, Surviving in the Mountains, Military Alpine Climbing, Military Mountain Rescue and Military Mountain Guiding.[10]