Training in Zagan will include defence against enemy tanks and infantry, finding and destroying mines as well as artillery practise.
“To start the exercise, the NATO force assembled and then deployed quickly across European borders. Some 1,700 German troops and 600 vehicles and 70 tanks from bases in Germany deployed to Oberlausitz training area near Chemnitz. At the same time, hundreds of troops and tanks from the Norwegian Army’s Telemark battalion also deployed. All forces then linked up at Zagan in Poland. The rapid speed of the deployment of forces from Germany, the Netherlands and Norway shows the progress that has been made in recent years to increase the readiness and mobility of NATO’s military forces.”
The VJTF is provided by allies in rotation and includes several thousand troops, ready to respond where needed with air, sea and Special Forces support. It is part of the Alliance’s larger NATO Response Force (NRF).
This year, the 1st German / Netherlands Corps is in charge of the VJTF’s land forces. Admiral James Foggo commands the entire NRF from NATO’s Joint Force Command in Naples, Italy.
NATO Heads of State and Government agreed to create the VJTF at the Wales Summit in 2014, in response to a changed security environment, including Russia’s aggressive actions against Ukraine and instability in North Africa and the Middle East.
Noble Jump 2019 runs from the 24th of May to the 14th of June.
Nice of the Germans to get all three of their working tanks together for the pic 😀
Look closer, the two behind are cardboard cutouts….
That part of Poland was once part of Germany, until it was annexed in 1945. Sagan is near where Stalag Luft III was, the camp from which The Great Escape took place.