Minister Krstičević attends EX “Udar 17“

The Exercise was attended by the Deputy Commander of the Army of the Federal Republic of Germany, Lieutenant General Carsten Jacobsen and the Deputy Commander of the Army of the Hungarian Armed Forces, Major General Gabor Borondi.
 Minister Krstičević stated that the Exercise demonstrated the harmonised interbranch operation through integrated capabilities of the Croatian Army, the Croatian Air Force and Air Defence and the Support Command, and that the military exercises of the kind considerably upgraded the defence capabilities.
“I hope that the new capabilities will be integrated with theose displayed in the Exercise, and that they will complement modernisation of the Croatian Armed Forces.. I would like to extend congratulations on the high level of  trainedness, the same as in the victorious Homeland War. You have today proved to be worthy successors of the Croatian defenders, and to guarantee their future“.
Deputy Commander of the Army of the Federal Republic of Germany, Lieutenant General Carsten Jacobsen and the Deputy Commander of the Army of the Hungarian Armed Forces, Major General Gabor Borondi stated that they arrived to observe the readiness of the members of the Croatian Armed Forces prior to the deployment in Lithuania.
The Exercise “Udar 17” is conducted in the Training Range “Eugen Kvaternik“ near Slunj from 25 September to 6 October 2017., combined with the national-level evaluation of all components of the 1st HRVCON for NATO enhanced Forward Presence in Lithuania, and is engaging over 1,000 members of the Croatian Armed Forces. 
The Exercise Director – the Commander of the Guards Mechanised Brigade of the Croatian Army, Brigadier General Tihomir Kundid  underlined: “This has been the first time we integrated a live-fire exercise into combat readiness evaluation process.
The synchronised manoeuvres, fires and other combat elements we observed here have proved the high level of trainedness and equippedness of our Armed Forces,and their ability to complete any tasks assigned to them“.
The Exercise has been evaluated by 66 certified evaluators, applying the Combat Readiness Evaluation (CREVAL), supervised by four officers of the General Staff of the Croatian Armed Forces, two officials of the Defence Inspectorate and four NATO observers of SHAPE (the strategic level), who are to co-sign the evaluation and to refer it to NATO LANDCOM.
The live-fire Exercise “Udar 17″ was conducted by the forces of the Mechanised Infantry Battlegroup of the Guards Mechanised Brigade, to showcase the attained level of trainedness and preparedness for swift preparation and conduct of combat actions through synchronised inter-branch operation.
In simulated combat conditions the forces (members of the Croatian Army, the Support Command and the Croatian Air Force and Air Defence, operating the Pilatus aircraft and Mi8 helicopters) displayed the fire integration, fire control and manoeuvre and synchronised operation against the enemy forces.