At this year's largest international military exercise in Europe, "DEFENDER Europe 21", the Army of Montenegro took part in an infantry platoon from the 1st Infantry Company, equipped with six new lightly armored patrol vehicles "Oshkosh JLTV".
In the coming days, our soldiers, together with their colleagues from the USA, Romania, Spain and Italy, will operate in the training grounds in Romania, as part of the Italian battalion.
"VCG took part in the "SABER GUARDIAN 21" exercise, which is being implemented as part of the "DEFENDER Europe 21" exercise. The exercise will take place from June 2 to June 9 in Romania, while from May 25 to June 1 all preparations will be made for the integration of forces with the Italian battalion, within which the Army of Montenegro is participating in the exercise in that country. . The Army of Montenegro is participating in the exercise with one infantry platoon and six 'oshkosh' combat vehicles, it was announced to "Vijesti" from the Ministry of Defense (MoD) yesterday.
The department of Minister Olivera Injac clarified that "SABER GUARDIAN 21" is an exercise of the US Armed Forces, within the exercise "DEFENDER 21" and the NATO exercise "STEADFAST DEFENDER 21", with the aim of certifying the forces of the "Very High Task Force - VJTF".
"The importance of the participation of members of the Croatian Armed Forces is in the performance of wide-spectrum operations as part of the VJTF, with an emphasis on the deployment of forces and the performance of defense operations," the MoD emphasized.
A platoon of Montenegrin soldiers under the command of Captain Danko Kovačević also took part in the tactical-technical assembly on Sunday, where the participants of the exercise presented their weapons and equipment. Although not yet equipped with "Elbit" remote-controlled combat stations with 12,7 mm machine guns that will be mounted on them later, the new modern light armored patrol vehicles "oshkosh JLTV" of the Army of Montenegro, which are having their first overseas use here, have caused during the significant attention of the participants.
By the way, "SABER GUARDIAN 21" is an exercise jointly conducted by the Army Command of Romania and the US Armed Forces Command in Europe at various training grounds in Romania, Bulgaria and Hungary, and will last until June 24. The goal is to improve the coordination and combat operations of multinational military forces under a single command, and according to the scenario of the exercise, the participants will perform maneuvers of deployment of military forces by forced march, mass medical evacuation and treatment of the injured and wounded, pontoon operation to overcome water obstacles, parachute landing with fire support from air and defense against them, actions of armored-mechanized units and provision of artillery support.
This exercise is part of a much larger multinational joint military exercise "DEFENDER Europe 21" led by the USA, in which around 30 soldiers from 12 NATO and countries from the initiative " Partnership for Peace". As part of the "DEFENDER Europe 28.000" exercise, the participating armies practiced literally everything - from the simplest logistical to the most complicated combat operations, including anti-aircraft operations and defense against ballistic nuclear missile attacks.
By the way, as part of the "DEFENDER Europe 21" exercise, it was planned to establish a total of five logistics centers through which the so-called background security (supply of all necessary goods, weapons and ammunition) of the forces participating in the exercise in Albania, Hrvatski. Greece, Slovenia and Montenegro, but that logistics center in our country, however, has not been established.
"The logistics center referred to in the question has not been established in Montenegro, because no segment of the exercise will be implemented on the territory of Montenegro," stated the Ministry of Defense, although in the official press material for "DEFENDER Europe 21" on the website of the US Forces Command in Europe and Africa, states that one of the planned five logistics centers for that exercise should have been in Montenegro.
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