US and Romanian forces crossed the Danube River in Romania during exercise Saber Guardian 23, proving their ability to move rapidly through difficult terrain during military operations.
Synopsis
Allied forces crossed the Danube River in Romania during exercise Saber Guardian 23, proving their ability to move rapidly through difficult terrain during military operations.
The manoeuvre, called a “wet gap crossing” by military planners, involved small boats and pontoon barges, which the Allied forces strung together to form a bridge across the rushing river. This enabled vehicles from nine NATO Allies – Bulgaria, France, Italy, the Netherlands, North Macedonia, Poland, Portugal, Romania and the United States – to cross the river, with helicopters and infantry providing covering fire against simulated enemies. These crossings are complicated and precarious operations, requiring skill and coordination to perform successfully.
Held annually in the Black Sea region to help NATO Allies practise this vital skill, Saber Guardian is part of the Defender 23 series of exercises, which are aimed at improving the United States’ ability to rapidly reinforce Europe and perform complex military tasks with Allied troops. The exercise ran from 29 May to 9 June 2023.
Footage includes shots of multinational forces performing a river crossing, and interviews with US and Romanian officers.
Transcript
---SHOTLIST—
(00:00) WIDE SHOT – SIMULATED ARTILLERY FIRE ON RIVER BANK
(00:05) WIDE SHOT – INFANTRY FIGHTING VEHCILES PROVIDING SUPPORTING FIRE FROM CAMOUFLAGED POSITIONS
(00:09) VARIOUS SHOTS – ROMANIAN SOLDIERS STORM A BEACH IN RIGID-HULLED INFLATABLE RAFTS
(00:25) WIDE SHOT – A ROMANIAN VEHICLE DRIVES ONTO A FRENCH RAFT
(00:31) VARIOUS SHOTS – ROMANIAN RIVER FLOTILLA
(00:44) WIDE SHOT – SOLDIERS RUN ACROSS THE BRIDGE
(00:50) VARIOUS SHOTS – A DUTCH RAFT CARRIES TWO ROMANIAN VEHICLES ACROSS THE RIVER
(00:58) WIDE SHOT – A US RAFT CARRIES TWO ROMANIAN VEHICLES ACROSS THE RIVER
(01:01) WIDE SHOT – A US ARMY CHINOOK FLIES OVER THE RIVER
(01:06) WIDE SHOT - A US RAFT CARRIES TWO ROMANIAN VEHICLES ACROSS THE RIVER
(01:14) WIDE SHOT – BULGARIAN HUMVEES CROSS THE RIVER ON A RAFT
(01:18) VARIOUS SHOTS – ROMANIAN ARMY IAR 330 HELICOPTER FLIES ABOVE THE TRAINING AREA
(01:25) VARIOUS SHOTS - ROMANIAN ARMY IAR 330 AND US ARMY AH-64 APACHE GUNSHIPS FLY ABOVE THE TRAINING AREA
(01:41) WIDE SHOT – A FRENCH CONVOY ON ITS WAY TO CROSS THE BRIDGE
(01:47) WIDE SHOT – A HUMVEE FROM NORTH MACEDONIA ON ITS WAY TO CROSS THE BRIDGE
(01:50) WIDE SHOT – VEHICLES FROM NORTH MACEDONIA, PORTUGAL AND ROMANIA ON THEIR WAY TO CROSS THE BRIDGE
(01:54) WIDE SHOT – POLISH VEHICLES DRIVING ONTO A US RAFT
(02:05) VARIOUS SHOTS – A PORTUGUESE VEHICLE CROSSES THE BRIDGE
(02:12) VARIOUS SHOT – A FRENCH CONVOY APPROACHES THE BRIDGE
(02:20) VARIOUS SHOTS – FRENCH VEHICLES AND SOLDIERS CROSS THE BRIDGE
(02:33) VARIOUS SHOTS – A US RAFT DOCKS AT THE BEACH
(02:43) GOPRO TIMELAPSE – A US BRADLEY INFANTRY FIGHTING VEHICLE CROSSES THE BRIDGE
(03:01) VARIOUS DRONE SHOTS (NO SOUND) – MULTINATIONAL VEHICLES LINED UP BEFORE THE EXERCISE
(03:21) SOUNDBITE(ENGLISH) - LIEUTENANT COLONEL JOHN VICKERY, 1ST INFANTRY DIVISION, US ARMY
“What you're seeing behind us is known as Saber Guardian 23. It's an exercise that happens in southeastern Europe almost every year. And it brings together a number of different nations from across Europe, from Great Britain, and even the United States. And this one's about crossing a river, obviously. But it's more than just building a bridge, it's demonstrating our ability to quickly put in place a bridge to defend one side, to quickly attack the far side using every piece of enabler, every piece of equipment, all coming together is a combined arms effort.”
(3:54) SOUNDBITE(ENGLISH) - LIEUTENANT COLONEL JOHN VICKERY, 1ST INFANTRY DIVISION, US ARMY
“Clearly, a lot is going on behind us here. And I think this demonstrates a couple of things. First, it demonstrates we can go wherever we want, whenever we want. And we've been doing this for the last several days, using multiple means to cross a wet gap up to a thousand metres. And we've proven we're pretty good at that. The other thing this demonstrates is our credibility that when we show up somewhere and we say something, we're going to follow through on that. Whether that's our commitment to the partners here in southeastern Europe or that it’s to the overall Alliance.”
(04:34) SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) - LIEUTENANT COLONEL JOHN VICKERY, 1ST INFANTRY DIVISION, US ARMY
“So being able to cross a wide gap is incredibly important. I mean, you see terrain like this all throughout Europe, all throughout the continent and so being able to do this quickly and rapidly and maintain your combat power and that momentum and seize the initiative on the other side is critically important.”
(04:51) SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) – CAPTAIN DON HAMRICK, 1-18TH INFANTRY REGIMENT, US ARMY
“So, in the background is eleven M2A3 Bradley Fighting vehicles. Today we are actually going across the Danube River. We're the last in the order of movement as we are the decisive operation so everything that is going into this is prepping the battlefield. Our NATO partners are setting it up for us. So, as we cross the river and reach our objective, we'll be able to do that successfully because of them fighting the fight before we get to our part.
Now the Bradleys behind me, they weigh anywhere between 30 and 33 tonnes. And the pontoon bridge that we are crossing is a Romanian bridge and each pontoon that is connected is ready for 60 tonnes. So that was important as far as safety goes for us to understand that capability but also it gives us confidence that, that this enormous restricted terrain in front of us will not stop us from crossing to accomplish our mission.”
(05:49) SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) – CAPTAIN DON HAMRICK, 1-18TH INFANTRY REGIMENT, US ARMY
“We learn from each other while we're here and also we learn to trust each other. We have US rafts that are taking across Romanian APCs. We have Bulgarian ferries that are taking across North Macedonian vehicles. I mean, it's all part of working together and now we know that if we have to do this anywhere in the world, we have experience with it and that builds confidence, and we also have confidence in our partners as well. This is our second multinational exercise with NATO, and we've learned a lot so far and look forward to doing it at any opportunity that we get.”
(06:23) SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) - LIEUTENANT COLONEL ȘERBAN ADRIAN, 96TH ENGINEER BATTALION, ROMANIAN ARMY
“In Romania, especially in the east flank of NATO, we have a rich network of rivers. So basically this is the main obstacle where you can stop if we have an aggression. So during our exercise, we prepare to cross this type of obstacle together with the manoeuvre forces. If we cannot cross this type of obstacle, the fight stops in front of this obstacle. So it's very important to us to learn together because we have different tactics, different […]. We have engineers from many countries here and of course we have manoeuvre forces for allies and partners.”
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