Jack of Harts

The Democratic Republic of Limaria is the Decisive Action Training Environment’s fictional autocratic, monocultural, violent, and aggressive little bundle of joy. Named Minaria in earlier versions, they have conquered part of neighboring Atropia because they wanted breathing room for the ethnic Limarians who lived there. They also had aggressive relations with neighboring Kalaria in previous exercises, but since Kalaria has been removed, only the Atropian foe remains to them now. Or the various political foes of the ruling powers. They tend to meet bad ends. Election violence and purges are normal. It’s not a very fun place to live if everything I’ve read is accurate. And did I mention they have friendly relations with Donovia and Ariana? They are a truly amazing little bundle of joy for just about any training exercise.

The Republic of Atropia is the Decisive Action Training Environment’s fictional modern liberal Islamic nation. Though not too modern, or too liberal, you understand. A single family controls the nation and all the government organs that promote order. Sometimes it is represented as a classic dynastic dictatorship, while it is an oligarchy in later settings. They have a high standard of living and are rich thanks to oil revenues and other resources on the Caspian Sea, but their civil liberties are heavily restricted. Outright repression is limited, though censorship and corruption are perennial problems. The driving foreign and domestic issue confronting Atropia in most scenarios I’ve seen is the occupation of the Lower Janga province by neighboring Limaria. That gives American troops many opportunities for creating interesting training scenarios.

Atropia, Gorgas, and Limaria are fictional nations in the Decisive Action Training Environment that the US Army fights in regularly. The 1,000 page publicly-released document I have says that it is conducted in Fort Leavenworth Kansas, though I have seen reports that Fort Polk in Louisiana also uses that program. It is built on a real world map of the Caucasus region, though every single nation is fictional. Sometimes the fiction is very thin, but it is fictional. The previously mentioned nations are border states between two, sometimes three depending on which version of DATE is followed, powerful neighbors who do not like each other. The border states are constantly in some level of conflict with each other, or their neighbors, giving the US Army a great deal of scenarios to play with when it comes to their training.