MILITARY exercises with codename Ground Pepper 2014 involving 1,300 soldiers from Slovakia, Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary and USA as well as 300 pieces of equipment have started on October 13, according to the TASR newswire.
Armed forces of the Slovak Republic sent a thousand professional soldiers to the exercise, and seven officers of the NATO Joint Force Command in Brunssum will be attending as observers. Participation in the exercise is financed from budgets of the Defence Ministry and the participating countries, spokeswoman for the Defence Ministry Martina Balleková informed the SITA newswire in mid September.
The exercise will focus on military activities such as digging up trenches, terrain masking techniques, construction of command and observation positions as well as evacuation of risk areas and protection of strategic objects, according to TASR.
The exercise takes place at the initiative of Slovak Defense Minister Martin Glváč.
“Unplanned exercises in the extent at which they realized this year are a novelty in our armed forces,” said the minister, as quoted by SITA, adding that he considers this the best way to identify shortcomings and at the same time to improve.
“It’s also evidence that we can promptly respond to changes in the security environment and we are fulfilling our commitment that we have declared that our soldiers will exercise more,” said Glváč, as quoted by SITA.
(Source: TASR, SITA)
Compiled by Roman Cuprik from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
