Synopsis
NATO Allies have been rolling out big guns and practising air defence as part of Exercise Paladin Strike, allowing them to familiarise themselves with each other’s fighting tactics and capabilities. The exercise took place at Ādaži Military Base, the home of NATO’s multinational battlegroup in Latvia, which is holding various exercises ahead of Exercise Silver Arrow in September – their final test before the battlegroup’s integration into the NATO Multinational Brigade.
NATO’s multinational battlegroup in Latvia was established following the 2016 Warsaw Summit, in which Allies agreed to set up four multinational battlegroups in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland. Following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, additional battlegroups were created in Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia. While most battlegroups are multinational battalions, some – like Latvia – are expanding to brigade-sized formations with more robust capabilities, like long-range artillery and air defence.
Exercise Paladin Strike ran 1-8 August 2024.
The footage includes shots of the Canadian Howitzer 777 firing; soldiers from Canada, Italy, Slovakia and the United States; and soundbites from Major ‘Luca’ Jamon Paradis, Air Defence Battery Commander, Canadian Army.
Transcript
—SHOTLIST—
(00:00) CLOSE SHOT – 2 SLOVAK ZUZANA SELF-PROPELLED HOWITZERS DRIVE ALONG DIRT TRACK AT ĀDAŽI MILITARY BASE
(00:14) VARIOUS SHOTS – CANADIAN SOLDIERS FIRING M777 HOWITZER
(00:55) CLOSE SHOT – CANADIAN SOLDIER ORGANISING ARTILLERY ROUNDS
(01:00) VARIOUS SHOTS – CANADIAN SOLDIERS FIRING M777 HOWITZER
(01:16) WIDE SHOT – SLOVAK ZUZANA 2 SELF-PROPELLED HOWITZERS FIRING ON TRAINING GROUND
(01:21) WIDE SHOT – SHOWING IMPACT OF ARTILLERY AND SMOKE RISING OVER TRAINING GROUND
(01:28) VARIOUS SHOTS – CANADIAN AND SLOVAK SOLDIERS DISCUSSING PLANS UNDER A CAMOUFLAGE NETTING
(01:47) WIDE SHOT – CANADIAN SOLDIERS ON TOP OF A TANK
(02:01) VARIOUS SHOTS – CANADIAN SPOTTERS AT AN OBSERVATION POST EXPLAINING THEIR EQUIPMENT FOR GUIDING ARTILLERY FIRE
(02:11) MEDIUM SHOT – SLOVAK SOLDIERS RECORD DATA FROM ARTILLERY FIRING EXERCISE
(02:15) VARIOUS SHOTS – ITALIAN INFANTRY PRACTISE USING A STINGER MISSILE SYSTEM IN AN AIR DEFENCE DRILL
(02:57) VARIOUS SHOTS – CANADIAN AND SPANISH ARMOURED VEHICLES DRIVING ALONG DIRT TRACK
(03:05) VARIOUS SLOW-MOTION SHOTS – CANADIAN ARMOURED VEHICLES MANOEUVRE AROUND THE TRAINING GROUND
(03:30) VARIOUS SLOW-MOTION SHOTS – US SOLDIERS IN THE FIELD
(03:48) SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) – MAJOR ‘LUCA’ JAMON PARADIS, AIR DEFENCE BATTERY COMMANDER, CANADIAN ARMY
“Fairly new within the newly formed multinational brigade Latvia. So everything is starting from zero and we have integrated the Italian platoon within our air defence battery. So it’s a multinational battery. It’s also the first time that we deploy outside Canada since the nineties for air defence, so it’s a fairly new challenge for us.”
(04:18) SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) – MAJOR ‘LUCA’ JAMON PARADIS, AIR DEFENCE BATTERY COMMANDER, CANADIAN ARMY
“We are part of NATO. It’s important for us to show our commitment to our Allied nations. I think being part of Latvia, integrating with their culture, integrating with their armed forces is a key, a key milestone for us, in order to be, being able to face bigger war in the world. Because we will never be able to face war alone. We need each other and we need to train with each other in order to be ready.”
(04:45) SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) – MAJOR ‘LUCA’ JAMON PARADIS, AIR DEFENCE BATTERY COMMANDER, CANADIAN ARMY
“What we’ve seen in Ukraine has informed us, especially for the air defence, about the aerial threat, which would be ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, airplanes, helicopters, uncrewed aerial system, have been growing immensely and being part of the battle is even more now important. So protecting against an air threat has become more crucial to the success of a mission nowadays. So for us the big lesson learned we’ve been taking from Ukraine is especially defending against uncrewed aerial systems. They have been prominent on the battle, they are a game changer and we want to make sure we protect our brigade against those in order for the brigade to be successful.”
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