Armed Forces from across NATO have come together to train on the interoperability exercise Venerable Gauntlet in Sennelager, Germany.
The multinational exercise is the UK’s national validation exercise for the NATO Very High Readiness Joint Task Force, based upon 20th Armoured Infantry Brigade.
Each of the 14 troop contributing nations are in attendance with elements of the personnel and equipment they would deploy with the VJTF.
This allows the NATO partners to test and demonstrate their interoperability and the unique capabilities they provide.
British, Danish and Polish infantry will work together to ensure that the Armoured, Mechanised and Light Role Battle Groups can communicate and operate together, supported by a multinational engineer group, reconnaissance patrols and attack helicopters.
According to the Ministry of Defence, the following force elements are taking part:
- United Kingdom: Headquarters 20 Armoured Infantry Brigade, 1st Batallion The Princess of Wales’s Royal Regiment, 1st Batalion Grenadier Guards, 26 Regiment Royal Artillery, 35 Engineer Regiment, The Queen’s Royal Hussars, The Royal Dragoon Guards, 77th Brigade, 1st Regiment Royal Military Police, Joint Helicopter Force 3, RLC, REME
- Denmark: Armoured Infantry, Engineers
- Poland: Mechanised Infantry Batallion
- Czech Republlic: CBRN Company
- Spain: Artillery, Engineers, Infantry
- Estonia: Mechanised Infantry Company
- Latvia: Light Infantry
- Norway: Recconaisance Platoon
- Romania: Military Police
Soldiers from Spain’s Grupo de Artillería de Campaña de la Legión (GACALEG) and 26th Regiment Royal Artillery introduced each other through their individual weapon systems.
They then went on to fire the Spanish 105 Light Gun and the AS90 from 26 Regt RA before joining up with Forces from Poland with the BWP-1 AFV and the Estonians with the Sisu XA-188 AFV to conduct rural (attacking enemy positions) and urban patrol training in the FIBUA village with 1PWRR.
The following gallery is from the exercise.
Photographer: Cpl Timothy Jones RLC Crown Copyright 2016.
