International command post exercise (CPX) involving over 300 soldiers from 7 countries - the Czech Republic, U.S.A., Canada, Lithuania, Luxemburg, Hungary and Germany - is held at the General Adolfas Ramanauskas Warfare Training Centre in Nemenčinė on October 13 through 16 ahead of the international Exercise Iron Sword 2014 that will take place in Lithuania in November.
For the three days of training the participants will be practicing military decision-making processes and planning defensive and offensive operations on the higher staff's order. The relevance of the planned operations will be put to test by completing tactical tasks at Exercise Iron Sword 2014 on November 2-14 at the Gaižiūnų and the General Silvestras Žukauskas Training Areas. Tactical tasks and battle control will be oriented at the readiness to complete defence, offensive and stabilisation operations.
"This international exercise for the first time held in Lithuania will be taking place in two training areas of the Lithuanian Armed Forces simultaneously, so we have to deliberate and preplan the course and control of the exercise in detail particularly thoroughly," officer of the Exercise Planning Group of Iron Sword 2014 Major Mantas Juozaitis said.
According to the Lithuanian officer, the CPX participants will plan and prepare all the military actions for different phases of the international exercise so that the participants of Iron Sword 2014 know what their tasks and objectives are precisely in November. "Lithuanian soldiers have attended numerous combined exercises and have been deployed to multinational operations in Iraq and Afghanistan with some of the allies, so we are perfectly aware of their actions, tactics and procedures. However, there will be participants in November from the allies with whom we have little or no cooperation experience, for example, military personnel of Luxembourg," Maj M. Juozaitis commented on the challenges likely to be presented by the exercise.
Exercise Iron Sword 2014 held in Lithuania for the first time is organised by the Lithuanian Land Force. The main training objectives of the exercise will focus on interoperability and coordination of combined allied units, and their readiness to complete defensive, offensive and stabilisation operations. The exercise is planned to involve over 2 thousand participants from 9 NATO allies - the Czech Republic, Estonia, U.S.A., UK, Canada, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Hungary and Germany.
The multinational Exercise Iron Sword 2014 will also certify contingents of the Lithuanian Land Force for standby for the NATO Response Force in 2015 and 2016. Also, it will be linked to another exercise of the Lithuanian Land Force, Trust 2014.
Photo credits: Captain T. Grėsius
