Immediate Response 14 Exercise opened
A brief ceremony was held in the Croatian Defence Academy at the „Petar Zrinski“ Barracks in Zagreb on Sunday 17 August, to open the International Military Exercise titled «Immediate Response 14», which is to last to 30 August, co-organised by the USAREUR Command, the Croatian and the Slovenian Armed Forces and attended by representatives of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Denmark, Kosovo, Hungary, Macedonia and the United Kingdom. The aim of the Exercise is to train the military staff for peace support operations focussed on providing the humanitarian assistance and disaster relief.
The Exercise will for the first time be held in two NATO nations simultaneously (the Simulation Centres in Zagreb and Postojna, Slovenia and in the „Poček“ Military Range in Slovenia). The segment to be carried out at the Simulation Centre of the CAF’s Training and Doctrine Command will be focussed on joint practice by the multinational brigade staff in the conduct of humanitarian operations such as land sanitation, water purification, camp and road repair and construction, humanitarian convoy organisation, EOD disposal and the like. The Exercise will engage 175 members of the Croatian Armed Forcdes at different posts, ranging from the command and staff duties to medical teams in the field.
Brigadier General Siniša Jurković, the Commander of the Guards Mechanised Brigade as the Exercise Director addressed the participants in the „Petar Zrinski“ Barracks in Zagreb, forwarding the addresses by the Chief of the General Staff of the croatian Armed Forces and the Croatian Army Commander, Lieutenant General Dragutin Repinc and emphasising that the Exercise was conducted in two countries and at the brigade level for the first time. Speaking of the mail goals of the Exercise, Brigadier General Siniša Jurković underlined the training of the staff for planning process and the procedures at the brigade and battalions level, as well as the upgrading the interoperability level. The principal asset of the Exercise, as stated by its Director, was that it contributed to the stability and security of the region.