One of the largest multinational exercises scheduled in Lithuania this year Exercise Iron Wolf 2017 will run from June 12 to 23 to assess preparedness of the multinational NATO enhanced Forward Presence (eFP) Battalion Battle Group, deployed in Lithuania as of the beginning of the year and fully manned in May, to complete a variety of types of tasks side by side with allies. The multinational Battle Group is led by Germany, while Belgium, the Netherlands and Norway are contributing excellently trained and equipped soldiers. In July they will also be joined by Luxembourg.
The exercise held in southern, middle and eastern parts of Lithuania will involve roughly 5.3 thousand participants from Lithuania and nine other NATO allies: apart from the countries that have formed the NATO eFP Battle Group, also from the United States, United Kingdom, Poland and Portugal.
Headquarters of the two Lithuanian Armed Forces brigades, the Mechanised Infantry Brigade Iron Wolf and the Motorised Infantry Brigade Žemaitija, will also be for the first time training at the same time in Exercise Iron Wolf 2017. The soldiers will plan and arrange defensive and offensive operations for multinational battalion tactical groups that will operate in populated areas, and interoperability among allies will be improved. Exercise Iron Wolf 2017 participants will also train acting together with NATO units deploying from Poland thus joining the forces in Suwalki Gap.
Exercise Iron Wolf 2017 is a part of Exercise Saber Strike conducted in the Baltic states and Poland, an exercise organised by the United States European Command. This year’s key exercise objective will be training and exercising the NATO enhanced Forward Presence (eFP) Battle Groups with a focus on promoting interoperability with Allies and regional partners. The multinational, robust eFP Battle Groups stationed in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland are part of the ongoing commitment by the U.S and NATO Allies and Partners to deter aggression throughout Europe. The Multinational Corps North East (MNC-NE) Szczecin (Poland) will be the command and control element for multinational operations.
