French and Polish troops recently took part in an air defence exercise in Lithuania alongside their NATO Allies on Exercise TOBRUQ LEGACY 20.
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French and Polish troops took part in an air defence exercise in Lithuania. TOBRUQ LEGACY 20 was an annual and long-planned multinational exercise involving more than 750 personnel from 10 countries – the Czech Republic, Estonia, France, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and the United States. During the exercise, Polish, French and other Allied air defence forces conducted on-the-move short-range air defence for Lithuanian troops and established a multinational surface-based air defence operations cell.
TOBRUQ LEGACY ran from 12 to 27 September 2020. Soldiers continue to take precautions to limit the potential spread of COVID-19.
Footage includes shots of the French Air and Space Force, 05.950 ‘Barrois‘ Ground-Based Air Defence Squadron (Armée de l’Air et de l’Espace, escadron de défense sol-air 05.950 ‘Barrois‘) using the SAMP/T medium-range air defence missile system, and the Polish 15th Air Defence Regiment using the GROM PPZR and Poprad anti-aircraft missile systems.
The soundbites on this NATO Multimedia video are from Captain Gaglin, French Air and Space Force, 05.950 ‘Barrois Ground-Based Air Defence Squadron:-
(02:43) Soundbite In French – Captain Gaglin: “We are participating in TOBRUQ LEGACY, in a multinational environment, in order to train with other nations, NATO nations, and it’s a great opportunity for us to develop our skills while sharing and discussing each other’s best practices.”
(03:08) Soundbite In French – Captain Gaglin: “The advantage of this job is the possibility of being deployed abroad, of being able to make use of training grounds such as this one. It does require a high level of technicality because our weapons systems are quite high tech. And at the same time, when you are an officer in a ground-based air defence squadron, you have to develop leadership and management skills, because you also lead and manage a lot of personnel.”
(03:38) Soundbite In French – Captain Gaglin: “Air defence is really like an umbrella protecting you from water droplets. We protect the deployment zone, where sensitive sites are located, from air threats.’”
(03:57) Soundbite In French – Captain Gaglin: ‘This multinational exercise is a great opportunity for us to develop our skills and our knowledge on foreign weapons systems. To do this, we organised presentations where each participant presented its weapons system and its capabilities. We also talked about the necessary skills and had the chance to create networks and good relations with other nations, mainly with other ground-based air defence units.”
