“TRIDENT JUNCTURE 18” concludes

The Chief of Defence of the Norwegian Armed Forces  Admiral Haakon Bruun-Hanssen  also extended his appreciation to the Exedrcise participants for contributing to the successful conduct of the Exercise with their hard work and enthousiasm.

The international military exercise “Trident Juncture 18“ was conducted with the objective of testing interoperability of international forces in joint operations and NATO’s capability to restoring sovereignty of an ally following an armed aggression and to evaluate and certify  NATO Response Force 2019 (NRF19).

As many as 30 members of the Croatian Armed Forces took part side by side with a total of 50,000 personnel of 31 NATO member nations and partner countries (the Republic of Finland and the Kingdom of Sweden), using 250 aircraft, 65 vessels, including the American U.S. sea carrier “Harry S. Truman“ and some 10,000 motor vehicles .

The LIVEX engaged land, naval, air and special forces as well as amphibious landing forces. The land component was conducted in a area stretching to the south of Trondheim and to the north of Oslo, while the naval forces were engaged along the Norwegian coast to the north of Scotland and in the Baltic Sea and in the Atlantic Ocean, and the aerial exercise took place in the airspace of central Norway  Sweden and of Finland respectively.

The Exercise scenario featured invoking of Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty and a conflict between the North Force and the South Force. The first phase (31 October – 3 November) featured an attack by the North Force against the South Force, with a support from ampohibious operations by a Marine Corps  while in the second phase (4 to 7 November ) the South Force launched a counterattack. 

During the LIVEX  a Distinguished Visitors’ Day was held in Byneset, Norway, which was attended by a number of senior civilian and military officials, among whom the Chief of the General Staff of the Croatian Armed Forces  General  Mirko Šundov  and Brigadier General  Darko Pintarić, who took part in the “Trident Juncture 18“as Commander of the Joint Logistics Support Group – JLSG.

Alongside Brig.Gen. Darko Pintarić two  members of the SUpport Command of the Croatian Armed Forces – Captain Vedran Barić and Captain Tomislav Komjetan  – have been engaged in the JLSG  Headquarters in Sessvollmoen from September through December.

Sergeant Major Zdenko Karasek took part as Watchkeeper of the Joint Task Force Headquarters (JTF  HQ) within the Combined Joint Operations Center  (CJOC), and Major Ivan Šoštarec was engaged in the operation of the Land Component Command Headqarters North (LCC HQ North).

“Trident Juncture 18“„ also engaged the 25-member  Deployable Communications Module (DCM), of the Signal Battalion of the Croatian Army, tasked with providing support to the Exercise  through the use of a deployable CI  system (LINC-E2) and of the satellite TSGT L system, which were based in the town of Roros.

The LIVEX is followed by a Command Post Exercise,to take place from 14 – 23 November 2018.

The troops will return from Norway during November and December, and the co-ordination and synchronisation of the redeployment is a responsibility of the Joint Logistic Support Group headed by Brigadier General Darko Pintarić, who stated that Trident Juncture 18 logistic component demonstrated NATO capability to rapidly deploy its forces in the event of need to defend any member nation.

Brig. Gen.  Pintarić stressed  that the Joint Logistic Support Group conducted tasks in the territory  of a NATO nation for the first time in history, implementing  and testing  NATO concept of Joint Logistic Group.

“It was an immense pride for me as a Croatian general officer  to be the first NATO cpmmander to head the RSOM from the representative of the Norwegian  Joint Command. THe hon our commits me to  eral as 29 September 2018 as the first NATO commander who came to Norway and assumed the duty of the RSOM commander (Reception, Staging, Onward Movement) by a representative of the Norwegian Joint Command. It is an honour that commits me to work harder and assume greater responsibility; in my work I have relied on the knowledge, skills and the experience acquired exercising similar duties during the Homeland War.

JLSG is also an opportunity for the Croatian Armed Forces and for other NATO nations contribute to to contribute even  relatively small logistic unit to the Joint Logistic Support Group in future NATO-led operations and at the same time provide a whole spectrum of logistic support to their larger engaged units (companies, battalions) , said Brig. Gen.  Pintarić speaking of the experience as Commander of Joint Logistic Support Group in NATO’s Exercise  Trident Juncture 18“.

[ngg src=”galleries” ids=”3133″ display=”basic_thumbnail”]