Exercise “Spremnost 2014/2”

planned for the stand-by in 2015 was conducted at the “Eugen Kvaternik” Range near Slunj from  6 to 13 June 2014.
The committed unit is the 3rd Mechanised Coy of the 1st Battalion of the “Tigrovi” Brigade (the Motorised Guards Brigade) of the Croatian Army, to be augmented with a support squad, a mobile medical team, two liaison officers (the Motorised Guards Brigade’ members too) and a NSE (National Support Element) manned by the Support Command.

The NRF stand-by status requires meeting of all NRF CREVAL criteria, as evaluated by a Croatian Army CREVAL team, led by Lt.Col. Davor Fanton (Head the G1 Department of the Training and Doctrine Command of the Croatian Army). The CREVAL is a two-phase procedure, combining the in-barracks evaluation to review the entire planning and operations documentation, the status and material and technical assets, and the in-field exercise testing the attained capability level required for the theatre of operations in the event of the deployment.
The exercise entailed entry into the engagement area, movement to contact with the enemy side,  the transition from marching into battle array, firing manoeuvre, hasty defence and stability operations.
«The Company has the experience and has mastered the necessary tactics and procedures, and we expect good ratings», said the Exercise Director, Colonel  Tihomir Kundid, Chief of the Staff of the Motorised Guards Brigade,  who underlined that all components of the Task Force declared for the NRF had to take a 1-year training at the unit level qualify for evaluation. Prior to the deployment to ISAF, the members of the 3rd Mechanised Company went through a 6-month training process, which they resumed having returned from ISAF in January 2014 and attained the required level of preparedness.

The 3rd Mechanised Coy is the second Croatian Armed Forces unit committed to the NRF. The first one has been the 2nd Coy of the 1st Mechanised Battalion, which is stand-by for 2014 and requested deployable within 30 days. The NRF Task Force 2015, commanded by 1st Lieutenant Florijan Repinc, will be stand-by as of 1 January 2015. The Lead Nation in 2015 is France, to be succeded by Germany in 2016.