NATO Troops Hone Skills During BRILLIANT JUMP 24

NATO’s Very High Readiness Joint Task Force (VJTF) proved its ability to deploy rapidly during exercise BRILLIANT JUMP 24.

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STEADFAST DEFENDER 2024, NATO’s largest exercise in decades, includes over 90,000 troops from all 31 NATO Allies and Invitee Sweden.

The NATO-led exercise BRILLIANT JUMP 24, which is part of STEADFAST DEFENDER 2024, is an operational and tactical-level Alert and Deployment exercise. It aims to strengthen the Alliance’s deterrence and defence capabilities, and to train and test NATO’s Very High Readiness Joint Task Force (VJTF) troops to operate at tempo and provide decisive action in response to any arising crisis. This year’s participating countries are Albania, Poland, Spain, Türkiye and the United Kingdom.

This NATO Multimedia B-roll, filmed 26 February in Poland, contains images of mechanised combat vehicles and multinational infantry troops shooting and testing their capability to work together as a cohesive unit.

Shot list:-

• 00:00 ~ British Army armoured vehicles (Jackals) and Spanish tanks moving on the training field. Infantry UK / Albanian soldiers clearing the field and advancing through natural covers
• 00:27 ~ Infantry soldiers moving at night through the field
• 00:40 ~ A UK soldier providing tactical guidance and direction to a group of comrades amidst live combat operations
• 00:49 ~ UK infantry soldiers engaging targets with firearms
• 01:45 ~ UK / Albanian infantry getting out of an armoured vehicle, running through red smoke screens, ducking and shooting
• 01:56 ~ Infantry soldiers advancing through the field and in natural covers and shooting
• 02:35 ~ A Polish soldier wearing a balaclava and a helmet
• 02:38 ~ British Army artillery soldiers on armoured vehicles, shooting
• 02:53 ~ Spanish tanks advancing on the field
• 03:05 ~ British Army artillery soldiers on armoured vehicles
• 03:29 ~ Infantry soldiers running alongside an armoured vehicle towards natural cover
• 03:40 ~ Multinational forces interacting
• 03:43 ~ Soundbite – Spanish Lieutenant General Luis Lanchares, Deputy Commander, Allied Joint Force Command Brunssum: “BRILLIANT JUMP is one out of 14 exercises that are being executed in the context of the exercise under the umbrella of NATO, the STEADFAST DEFENDER. The importance and relevance of this exercise is related to the fact that this is the only one that is led by NATO. This is a unique opportunity of training. The VJTF are the spearhead of NATO Response Force and after having been here the whole morning, I have to say that we have the right leadership, they’re committed and very professional troops with the right skills.”
• 04:17 ~ Soundbite – British Army Brigadier General Guy Foden, Very High Readiness Joint Task Force (VJTF) / LAND: “I’ve been delighted with what I’ve seen, we’ve done a lot of training as headquarters, as
• commanders, and it’s the first time we’ve come together live with all of the troops. All of the nations have trained hard on their own and today we have proven our interoperability, our ability to work together and to deliver the result you saw today.”
• 04:36 ~ Soundbite – Polish Brigadier General Piotr Fajkowski, 11th Armoured Cavalry Division Commanding General: “Poland is in fact in the front line of the NATO, this is the eastern flank of the NATO, so we have to be ready to fight first.”
• 04:46 ~ Soundbite – Albanian Lieutenant Odisea Kasa, Infantry Battalion: “The exercise was really good, everything went well, we had a lot of things to do, we had a lot of enemies to take on, because other people had to stop back. Problems always happen. As we say in the army, it is “first plan never survives the war”, so we had a second plan, a third plan, so everything went well.”
• 05:12 ~ Soundbite – British Army Bombardier Mcenroe, Joint Terminal Attack Controller: “I think, with all of the soldiers, it’s great to talk to them, especially about the different job roles and find out things in common as well. It’s actually quite interesting to see how unique each individual unit is from each nation, especially if we’re going to be working so closely together”.

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