CAN Enhanced (Permanent?) Fwd Presence in Latvia

[MilEME09]

Now maybe im crazy but Old sweat is that info in public domain right now or should it be deleted as OPSEC?

 

[suffolkowner]

its public

 

[MarkOttawa]

Interesting graphic at a tweet--other than tanks French seem to get a lot of equipment bang for their bucks:
https://twitter.com/cezarysta/status/871440681910272003

Mark
Ottawa

 

[MarkOttawa]

Graphic above appears in this piece:

Europe Reckons With Its Depleted Armies
As European NATO members confront rampant materiel shortages, officials acknowledge Trump has a point in calling for more military spending
https://www.wsj.com/articles/europe-reckons-with-its-depleted-armies-1496444305

Mark
Ottawa

 

[The Bread Guy]

Message via Russian-language media in Latvia:  "Not only are Canadian troops driving up rents in Riga, our tax dollars are going towards taking care of these guys!"

Link to original article in Russian - screen capture of article text & Google English Translation version attached

 

[MilEME09]

Message via Russian-language media in Latvia:  "Not only are Canadian troops driving up rents in Riga, our tax dollars are going towards taking care of these guys!"

Link to original article in Russian - screen capture of article text & Google English Translation version attached

Didn't know the rental rates of old soviet bases affecting the housing market so much, huh learn something new everyday

 

[The Bread Guy]

Didn't know the rental rates of old soviet bases affecting the housing market so much, huh learn something new everyday

:nod:  Somehow, though, even if some Canadians are living on the economy, I don't believe those that read this & want to believe it will be swayed by that detail #ConfirmationBiasRulz

 

[The Bread Guy]

Some of the latest ...

Propaganda and provocation: Russia scoffs at Canada's Baltic war games
Canada-led NATO battle group goes through first major exercise to test battle-readiness
By Chris Brown, CBC News Posted: Aug 26, 2017 5:00 AM ET Last Updated: Aug 26, 2017 5:00 AM ET

A high-level Russian official is unimpressed with Canada's war games in the Baltics.

"There is no other way to interpret what's going on in the Baltic republics [than] as a very provocative action," Maria Zakharova, chief spokesperson for Russia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said in an interview with CBC News.

"How can that bring more stability to European security?" said Zakharova. "I cannot understand that. Nobody in Russia can understand that."

Russia's annexation of Crimea and its military support to separatists in eastern Ukraine spooked some Baltic republics and prompted the request for NATO to bolster its presence in the border region.

That led the Trudeau government to commit more than $350 million dollars to send Canadian troops to lead the NATO force in Latvia for three years.

Five other countries — Italy, Spain, Poland, Slovenia and Albania — are also part of Operation Reassurance.

The exercise they've been engaged in this past week — their first major one — is essential for testing their battle-readiness.

After five days and nights living out of a mud trench, the end is finally in sight for Maj. Chelsea Braybrook and the rest of Bravo Company.

"We're in the last phase now," said Braybrook, a member of the Edmonton-based Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry and one of 450 Canadian soldiers stationed here as part of the Canadian-led NATO battle group.

"I'd say we have at most another 48 hours of defensive operations," said Braybrook.

Repel attack

The aim of the exercise was to repel a conventional enemy attack with armour and infantry units and to hold a forested area about an hour's drive north of Latvia's capital.

Every member of Canada's battle group wears thick camouflage makeup on their faces.

Some hunker down in foxholes, listening to orders come in over the radio in the make-believe battle ...

More @ link

 

[The Bread Guy]

NATO's info-machine:  Multi-nat BG's good to go in Baltics/Poland ...

NATO battlegroups in Baltic nations and Poland fully operational
28 Aug. 2017 | Last updated: 28 Aug. 2017 17:19

NATO’s four multinational battlegroups in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland are now fully operational. This milestone comes after the Canadian-led battlegroup based at Camp Ādaži in Latvia became the fourth battlegroup to complete its Certification Exercise.

In response to a changed security environment, Allied leaders decided at the Warsaw Summit in 2016 to enhance NATO’s military presence in the eastern part of the Alliance. Since then, four multinational battlegroups totaling approximately 4,500 troops have deployed to the Baltic nations and Poland. Canada leads the battlegroup in Latvia, with contributions by Albania, Italy, Poland, Slovenia and Spain. Germany leads the battlegroup in Lithuania, with contributions by Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Norway. The United Kingdom leads the battlegroup in Estonia, with contributions by France. The United States leads the battlegroup in Poland, with contributions by Romania and the UK.

These forces are a defensive and proportionate deterrent force, fully in line with NATO’s international commitments. They send a clear message that an attack on one Ally would be met by troops from across the Alliance.

The four battlegroups are one part of the Alliance’s response to Russia’s use of force against its neighbours and its military build-up in the Baltic region and beyond. NATO is also strengthening its multinational presence in the Black Sea region, based around a Romanian-led multinational framework brigade. The Alliance has also tripled the size of the NATO Response Force to 40,000 - with a high-readiness Spearhead Force at its core - and set up eight small headquarters (NATO Force Integration Units) to facilitate training and reinforcements.

 

[Quirky]

They send a clear message that an attack on one Ally would be met by troops from across the Alliance the United States.

:nod:

 

[The Bread Guy]

Interview with the boss via Latvia's military info-machine -- also attached in case link doesn't work ...

Chief Editor of Latvian Military Magazine “Tēvijas Sargs” Līga Lakuča’s interview with LCol Wade Rutland,
Commander of NATO’s enhanced Forward Presence Battlegroup in Latvia.
sargs.lv, 13 Sept 2017

— What are the tasks of your battlegroup? What are the priorities of this battlegroup?

— Deter any possible aggression and defend the region if necessary, in order to prevent conflict. The theory behind deterrence is that you have a capability, professional soldiers, and the will to use it, and what that’s intended to do is change the mindset of an adversary that would maybe do something harmful or inappropriate. So deterrence is the main mission. Now, how we do that on a day to day basis? This isn’t this kind of typical Afghanistan or Bosnia mission which we’ve done in the past. Latvia has a fully functioning security apparatus, government and economy. So what we’re mainly going to do on a day to day basis is train, and that’s for couple of reasons. Number one is that’s what soldiers do – it keeps their skills sharp. Also, we’re a multinational battlegroup that is being integrated into the Latvian Land Forces, and we need to train together. Each nation has their own progression of training, and so every individual group arrived in theatre at their nation’s highest level of army training. What we’re doing now is working together as a cohesive entity and as part of the Latvian Land Forces. The next thing we’re going do is outreach - to show who and what we are to the population, just like we would do in our home nations. When there is a school or event we’ll send some soldiers and equipment, and give a briefing of who we are and what we do. By doing that, conducting our training which is always open, transparent – and showing what we do... we will accomplish our mission. And accomplishing our mission means that we go home, and really everything stays peaceful and we go home satisfied with what we accomplished here.

— For you it’s maybe most difficult, because for second team it will be maybe easier, because they know the situation... What was your, like, expectations, what will be here, because, like you said, it’s Latvia, it’s not Afghanistan, it’s completely different story, different life... and... and different mission? What was your personal feelings for coming here?

— Yes, so before the Warsaw Summit when we started to get the news that the Canadian led eFP battlegroup would be paired with Latvia, I could certainly pick it out on the map as one of the Baltic States, but other than most of what I knew came from having watched Canada play Latvia in hockey a few times. Any time we go to new area though, we do research and we actually had a great program where all the leaders from each nation came to Canada, and we put on a really large educational session. A professor from the Latvian Defence Academy came to brief us, as did Colonel Lejiņš (Commander of the Latvian Land Forces Brigade). By early March we had a really good impression of what to expect – Latvian geography, their culture, the people, the infrastructure etc. As soldiers, we tend to be curious people, so everyone has read the history of the Baltic States and knows about names like Kārlis Ulmanis. It’s a good idea to know what you’re getting into – we gave briefings to all the soldiers. They knew what they were in for.  And then I was lucky enough to come here for a month in April for exercise “Summer Shield’, where I got to see the terrain, and also meet all the Brigade personalities. This terrain is very familiar. There is a province in Canada called New Brunswick that is just like Latvia. It’s almost the same size, it’s got a coast line, the trees, the rivers, the climate – it’s very familiar for the Canadians that came here. So I think we had a pretty good idea of what we were in for and I don’t think there’s been any big surprises to be honest.

— How is you cooperation going, you said about cooperation between Canadians and Latvians? What you would say, what is, like, most important to do – you said training? And what do you see what should be worked more on that, something, you know, like learning some special things, because as you said in different countries are doing different? Also with the Latvians another countries too, like Poland and Italy? How is this cooperation going? You are coming together and deciding which way to go or how you manage things or?

— The great thing about being a part of NATO, is that there are NATO publications and NATO standing agreements, and we all signed on to all of them. I’ll give you an example – radio procedures: there is a NATO book called ACP 125 and we all follow it. Everyone knows that that is the book on radio procedure and we all follow it. We are part of the Latvian Brigade.  They have 1st and 2nd Battalions at the Latvian weekly Brigade meeting and I sit in the 3rd Battalion seat. I go to the meetings and I get direction, I bring up any points, and so the battlegroup has been integrated into the Latvian structure. That’s not just at that weekly meetings – for example our operations officer goes to weekly range and deconfliction meetings. So with the Latvian Brigade it’s going quite well and when we were on ‘Summer Shield’, we took orders from the Brigade, translated them into the battlegroup orders, which was seamless because we speak the same kind of tactical language – defend, block, delay, those kind of things, just as long as you keep your concepts simple, which is a great thing to do anyways for soldiers - to keep things simple. Internal to the battlegroup, we knew that we had to quickly overcome any interoperability challenges, and so it was great when I referred to all the national leadership that came to Canada, we took a full day to write out some of those challenges that we foresaw, and what we could do about them ...

More @ link

 

[TQMS]

Little addition coming to eFP in Latvia.

Slovakia to Deploy 152 Troops in Baltics to Join NATO Forces
https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2018-04-25/slovakia-to-deploy-152-troops-in-baltics-to-join-nato-forces
(AP, 25 April 18) Slovakia's government has approved a plan to deploy 152 troops in the Baltics as part of NATO forces amid growing tensions between Russia and the West.

 

[MarkOttawa]

Somehow I don't think this tweet very likely to have much deterrent effect on Russkies:
https://twitter.com/CFOperations/status/1014880818710433793

CAF Operations
‏Verified account @CFOperations

After a year of training, exercises, and community outreach, NATO’s #eFP Battle Group Latvia is better, faster, and stronger. We‘re proud to continue working with our #NATO allies. #WeAreNATO
http://bit.ly/2lV43yY

Based on this article in The Maple Leaf:

One year in, NATO’s Canada-led eFP Battle Group Latvia is better, faster, and stronger
https://ml-fd.caf-fac.ca/en/2018/07/15545

Mark
Ottawa

 

[dapaterson]

Better.  Stronger.  Faster.

Where have I heard that before?

 

[Remius]

Better.  Stronger.  Faster.

Where have I heard that before?

Six million dollar man.  Which ironically is 6 times more than our current bionics project gets... and that is just for the knees.

http://natoassociation.ca/canadian-forces-enter-the-bionic-age/

 

[GK .Dundas]

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/latvia-nato-trudeau-trump-1.4737690   


Hmm. English is such an interesting language and flexible too.
What used to referred to as an Forlorn Hope is now called a Leadership role or at least according to the CBC .

 

[MARS]

Better.  Stronger.  Faster.

Where have I heard that before?

;D I was thinking about this one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDpmVUEjagg

 

[daftandbarmy]

NATO, you old hegemonist you....  :


Interfax:

http://www.militarynews.ru/story.asp?rid=1&nid=486697

Russia will take measures in response to drawing Sweden and Finland into NATO – Shoigu
7/24/2018 16:23:34

Moscow. 24 July. Interfax-AVN-RF will take measures in response to active cooperation between Sweden and Finland with NATO, Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said.

"The involvement of NATO in Finland and Sweden is worrying, and in May a treaty was signed that provides for their full participation in the exercises of the alliance and the possibility of using its command and control systems for troops and weapons." In exchange, NATO received unhindered access to the airspace and territorial waters of these countries, "said Minister at the collegium of the department on Tuesday.

"Such steps by Western colleagues lead to the destruction of the existing security system in the world, generate even greater mistrust, forcing us to take retaliatory measures," S. Shoigu stressed.

He said that the NATO contingents in Eastern Europe are continuing to grow: since 2014 their number has increased from 2 to 15 thousand servicemen.
In his opinion, the intensity of the preparations for the alliance is constantly increasing.

"Over 100 exercises have been conducted since the beginning of the year, in which up to 80,000 servicemen participated, while the number of personnel annually attracted to the series of exercises increased 10-fold over five years, and the number of combat aviation increased from 11 units to 101," said the Minister.

He noted that "with the help of the United States in Europe deployed five centres of cyber operations - in Finland, Estonia, Poland, Germany and France."

 

[Ashkan08]

CAF to replace the RAF in patrolling the black sea. Will be interesting to see how our CF-18's compare to Su 30's. Might even cause the government to be more serious in looking for a new fighter jet.
https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/news_157836.htm

 

[PuckChaser]

Might even cause the government to be more serious in looking for a new fighter jet.

:rofl:

Oh, you were serious.....