The “ŠTIT 14” Exercise ends
The International Military Exercise titled “ŠTIT 14” (“SHIELD”), held at the “Rt Kamenjak” Range near Pula, Croatia finished on 14 April 2014. It was an inter-service exercise, involving 550 members of the Croatian Armed Forces and some 50 members of the Slovenian Armed Forces respectively.
The goal was to assess the aerial target shooting capability and trainedness of air defence artillery and missile units.
The first day of the Exercise (8 April 2014) featured live shooting using the “Strijela” and “Igla” portable anti-aircraft missile systems.
The Exercise was attended by Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Croatian Armed Forces, Vice-admiral Ante Urlić, the Croatian Army Commander, Major General Dragutin Repinc and the Commander of the Slovenian Logistic Brigade, Col. Milan Žurman.
The distinguished visitors assessed the capabilities as excellent. „The participants of the Croatian Army’s Air Defence unit and the partner Slovenian forces displayed high level of trainedness and capability. for the task“, said Vice-admiral Urlić.
Maj. Gen. Repinc expressed his satisfaction over the outcome of the Exercise.”The Croatian units fired 83 missiles, and the precision is over 90%”.
The Commander of the Logistic Brigade of the Slovenian Armed Forces, Colonel Milan Žurman, underlined that the Slovenian forces were participating in the Exercise at the Range location for the first time, which involved establishment of a joint logistic base, in compliance with the NATO’s Smart Defence concept. “In our next joint execise to take – the Immediate Response 2014, planned for the summer, we expect to build upon this achievement”, said Col. Žurman.
The organiser of the “Štit 14”, the earliest exercise cycle of the Croatian Armed Forces, conducted for the 20th consecutive year, was the Croatian Army, supported by the Croatian Support Command, the Croatian Navy and the Air Force and Air Defence, and the Executive Officer, Colonel Blaž Beretin, highlighted that the Kamenjak Training Range also hosted the training of EU special operations platoons.
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