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In the early hours of Saturday 08 May a joint force from US 82nd Airborne Division and UK 16 Air Assault Brigade parachuted into Estonia, writes Bob Morrison.
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SWIFT RESPONSE 21 is a linked exercise of DEFENDER-Europe 21 which involves Special Operations activities, Air Assaults, and Live Fire Exercises in Estonia, Bulgaria, and Romania, demonstrating airborne interoperability among NATO allies.
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After covering US and UK artillery live-firing on Exercise FIRES SHOCK and FR and UK troops mounting an inter-operability demo on Operations LYNX / CABRIT last week in the Tapa area, we relocated to Nurmsi airfield early on Saturday morning to link up with SWIFT RESPONSE 21 and be in place for the follow-on heliborne air assault mission planned for later in the day (which will be covered in a later article).
US Army Spc. Denice Lopez was not afforded the luxury of sleep overnight Friday/Saturday as she was tasked with producing the accompanying video of the drop. In addition to the fleet of C-17 aircraft (convoy callsign REACH 700, for those with access to FlightRadar) which crossed the Atlantic on Friday afternoon with airborne personnel, vehicles and equipment on board, a second wave of transport aircraft flying from Lithuania with more US Paras on board added to the Joint Forcible Entry operation.
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Background: DEFENDER-Europe is an annual large-scale US Army-led, multinational, joint exercise designed to build readiness and interoperability between US, NATO and partner militaries. This year’s exercise:-
- Focuses on building operational readiness and interoperability with a greater number of NATO allies and partners over a wider area of operations
- Is defensive in nature and focused on responding to crisis if necessary
- Demonstrates that the US commitment to NATO is iron clad
- Integrates approximately 28,000 multinational forces from 26 nations to conduct nearly simultaneous operations across more than 30 training areas in 12 countries.
- Includes strict COVID prevention and mitigation measures, such as pre-deployment COVID testing and quarantining.
- Has significant involvement of the US Air Force and US Navy.
- Utilises key ground and maritime routes bridging Europe, Asia and Africa
- Exercises new high-end capabilities such the new US Army Security Force Assistance Brigades, air and missile defence assets and the recently reactivated V Corps
- Demonstrates our ability to serve as a strategic security partner in the western Balkans and Black Sea regions while sustaining our abilities in northern Europe, the Caucasus, Ukraine and Africa.