ADAZI MILITARY BASE, Latvia — Exercise Saber Strike 18 kicked off with an opening ceremony, held at Adazi Military Base, Latvia, June 3, 2018.
Saber Strike 18 is the eighth iteration of the long-standing U.S. Army Europe-led cooperative training exercise designed to enhance interoperability among allies and regional partners. This year's exercise, focuses on improving land and air operational capabilities with an additional key objective to train with NATO's enhanced Forward Presence (eFP) battlegroups. The eFP battlegroups, located in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland, are part of NATO's overall deterrence and defense posture.
“Saber Strike demonstrates the agility and power of NATO while embodying the motto of the Latvian Army ‘power in unity,’” said U.S. Army Col. Timothy Davis, Saber Strike Exercise Control Chief. “This exercise demonstrates the readiness of our forces in deployment and joint multinational actions.”
Prior to the official kick-off, the exercise began with the pre-positioning of maritime force operations and will transition to various field training evolutions combined with live-fire exercises.
During the opening ceremony, troops from eight of the 19 participating countries stood in formation as their respective country’s flag was raised. The eight countries included: Canada, Germany, Italy, Latvia, Norway, Slovakia, United Kingdom and the United States.
“This formation is the embodiment of strong strategic relationships,” said Latvian Army Col. Ilmars Atis Lejins, commander of Land Forces Mechanized Infantry Brigade.
Lejins said, “As a result of having a strong allied and NATO enhanced forward presence, we have learned that the trick to multi nationalitiy successfully working together is talking to each other and not about each other as well as looking for similarities in one another.”
Participants will train on command and control and logistics systems, host nation support activities and interoperability. All activities will feature joint and multinational training among the participating nations.
Lejin closed the ceremony by saying “look at the similarities in one another and you may find that we come from the same roots, which is the battlefield and we have a lot in common. By working together and talking to each other, hopefully we walk away from this exercise better trained, better appreciated and with new friends.”
| Date Taken: | 06.03.2018 |
| Date Posted: | 06.04.2018 16:35 |
| Story ID: | 279527 |
| Location: | ADAZI, LV |
| Web Views: | 148 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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