Battlefield Tour KOTOR-LOVCEN, Montenegro
Aim:
The aim and purpose of this battlefield tour is to bring together experts from various NATO (Partner) and national headquarters to examine historic mountain warfare operations (WWI – Kotor–Lovćen), draw critical lessons from these events, and translate them into practical insights for current and future mountain operations. The focus lies not only on understanding what happened but on extracting relevant, actionable knowledge that can strengthen decision-making, doctrine development, and operational readiness in upcoming missions.
Objectives:
- Analyze the historical battles fought around the Lovćen.
- Understand the tactical constraints imposed by extreme terrain, weather, and limited mobility.
- Examine command decisions, leadership approaches, and their operational consequences.
- Assess the role of artillery, logistics routes, and communication lines in shaping the campaign outcome.
- Identify how multinational forces coordinated (oder eben nicht koordiniert haben) and what that means for today’s interoperability.
- Extract key lessons that will guide future joint operations in mountain warfare.
- Translate historic tactical patterns into modern doctrine, including ISR integration, mobility, survivability, and sustainment in mountainous terrain.
- Determine which historical failures or successes remain relevant for contemporary planning cycles (MDMP, JOPP).
- Highlight principles of deception, concealment, and the use of key terrain that are still decisive in mountain operations.
- Identify gaps in current training, equipment, and risk management that historic cases make painfully evident.
- Enhance strategic understanding and improve the effectiveness of future military engagements in similar environments,
- Strengthen cross-HQ cooperation by aligning interpretations, terminology, and shared operational frameworks.
- Support the development of future MW capability requirements (doctrine, SOPs, training, technology integration).
- Enable participants to better anticipate operational risks, tempo limitations, and logistical challenges inherent to mountain warfare.
- Foster a deeper appreciation of how geography shapes strategy, campaign design, and the employment of modern joint forces.
Activities:
Battlefield Tour
Participants:
SME (OR-8/ OF-2/ OF-3/ OF-4/ OF-5) from Mountain Warfare Schools, Mountain Units, and experts from Civilian Organizations.
Event fee:
150 EURO
Project Officer:
LTC Marcus STURM
Branch Head
Doctrine & Standardization Branch
Organizer
As one of the main missions of the NATO MW COE is to suggest improvements and propose amendments to existing doctrines, procedures and standards for subsequent endorsement by the Strategic Commands and/or NATO HQ, the Doctrine & Standardization Branch serves as a tool which analyses existing publications, seeks for incoherence and, when appropriate, provides proposals according to NATO Standardization Process. Based on Lessons Learned, primarily received from operations and exercises, the branch will develop new products, based on expressed needs within the Alliance.
