“Black Bear 10”: DV Day held on the “Gašinci” military training ground

“Black Bear 10” is an international exercise of NATO Multinational Military Police Battalion (MNMPBAT) involving all MNMPBAT member states: Poland, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Croatia. The exercise was of purely military police kind, and the aim was to show the capabilities of the military police as well as the tasks it can carry out in NATO missions.
The DV Day was attended by the Deputy Chief of General Staff Rear Admiral (UH) Zdenko Simicic and other representatives of the Croatian Armed Forces, senior military officials of the armed forces of countries that participated on the exercise, representatives from the Ministry of Interior, and the delegation of the NATO MNC NE Command.
During exercise execution on four working points: the ambush on a MP patrol and crime scene investigation, cordon and search, quick stopping of vehicles and riot control; fundamental and specialist skills of the military police were shown.
In accordance with the scenario, the MP procedures in the case of an attack on a police station during a routine control, cooperation with civil police and the local population, monitoring, setting up ambushes and quick arresting of the protesters, crossing checkpoints, car search by military dogs, military police procedures in the case of protests, arrests, detention and transport of terrorist leaders and securing the camp procedures were shown.
At each point military police teams from two countries have been working together, and the role of opposing forces in the exercise had members of the Special Operations Battalion.
During the exercise, organizers tried to create conditions and situations as similar to those that members of the military police could expected in an international mission. NATO MNMPBAT operational battalion unit was placed on the “Gasinci” military training ground, while the exercise command has been placed in “Dracice” barracks in Djakovo.
In a statement to the media after the exercise, Rear Admiral Simicic praised the Multinational Military Police Battalion, and said that during the execution of the exercise which was carried out from 13 September there was not single accident. “Particular care was put on the environment in every segment during exercise execution”, Simicic said stressing that the “Black Bear 10” exercise was also a good opportunity for cooperation with local people and national minorities of Slovak and Czech origin.
“What you saw today is a realistic situation in which military police could be in an international environment. Our aim was to show which tasks do military police”, said the Exercises Director Colonel Tihomir Zebec, Chief of the GS Military Police Department. He stressed that the exercise showed that all components of the Multinational Battalion was prepared to carry out their tasks in the mission.
MNMPBAT Commander Colonel Marek Gryga also expressed his satisfaction with the exercise. “My soldiers were very busy here. This was a great opportunity to show the capabilities of the Battalion”, Col. Gryga said and thanked the Croatian colleagues for the excellent organization of the exercise. Representatives of the armed forces of other participating countries also expressed the satisfaction with the exercise and cooperation in multinational battalion. Advisor for military police of the NATO Commander, Colonel Jos Govaarts also attended the exercise: “I am very impressed by this joint work of four nations in one unit”, noting that this joint work was important for the missions.
This year’s exercise, hosted by Croatia, was the third in a series of exercises conducted since establishment of the Multinational Military Police Battalion. The first evaluation of the MNMPBAT by teams of evaluators from all participating countries was conducted on the exercise.