In 2019 the German Panzerlehr brigade 9 will provide the core of the NATO multinational Very High Readiness Joint Task Force (Land) or VJTF(L), reports Carl Schulze.
Between the 10th and 19th of June the brigade’s Panzerlehr bataillon 93 combined arms battle group was put through its Combat Readiness Evaluation (CREVAL) by NATO at the Gefechts übungs zentrum des Heeres (Army combat manoeuvre training centre) or GÜZ on the Altmark Training Area.

Elements of Panzergrenadierbataillon 401 equipped with Schützenpanzer Marder 1A3 MELLS break into Schnöggersburg [© CS]

From a rooftop a Norwegian sniper team provides overwatch for the assault troops storming the next building [© CS]
The enemy for the VJTF(L) forces was provided by the Ausbildungsverband, which is the GÜZ training centre’s own opposing force (OpFor). As part of the training the troops were among the first to use the centre’s brand new Schnöggersburg MOUT (Military Operations in Urban Terrain) training site, Germany’s equivalent of France’s CENZUB or Britain’s very much smaller Copehill Down, situated in the north of the Altmark Training Area.

The MELLS anti-tank guided missile system, a version of Spike LR, has recently been integrated with the Schützenpanzer Marder 1A3 AIFV [© CS]
Running through the combat village there will also be an 800 metre stretch of river with several bridges that can be removed, a station with 1.5 kilometres of railway tracks, a suburb containing containerised housing, an airfield with a runway, hundreds of metres of usable sewer system, an underground station with tunnels and much more.
[All images © Carl Schulze]

Tiger combat helicopters of the Heeresflieger provided close air support to the Dutch, Norwegian and German ground forces [© CS]

A Dutch anti-tank team equipped with the Gill anti-tank guided missile system, a variant of Spike LR, has dismounted from a Fennek medium range anti-tank vehicle [© CS]

Norwegian troops of the Telemark Battalion fight their way through the brand new Schnöggersburg village [© CS]