January 24, 2024 – Ottawa – National Defence/Canadian Armed Forces
The Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) will participate in the largest NATO exercise in decades. This exercise will serve to test NATO’s deterrence and defense plans aimed at countering threats to the Euro-Atlantic region.
This exercise will take place from the end of January to the end of May 2024 and will be divided into two main parts. The first part will focus mainly on maritime space and will focus on the defense of the waters of the North Atlantic and the Arctic, while the second will test NATO’s ability to rapidly deploy reinforcements in all areas to defend Central and Eastern Europe .
CAF assets participating in the exercise include HMCS CharlottetownCanadian patrol frigate, with its CH-148 Cyclone helicopter embarked, as well as the Canadian-led Enhanced Forward Presence battle group in Latvia, which for the first time includes a squadron of Canadian Leopard 2 main battle tanks.
This exercise will also represent an important milestone for the Canadian Army’s future multinational Forward Land Forces brigade in Latvia, as during the second part of the exercise the future command team will integrate with the higher NATO command to participate in planning and execution of defensive combat. operations.
NATO is a cornerstone of Canada’s defense policy, and Canada helped strengthen NATO assurance and deterrence measures in Europe following the invasion of Crimea in 2014. This exercise will provide a valuable opportunity to strengthen capacity of the CAF to plan, integrate and sustain operations within the NATO command and control structure.
2024-01-24 23:01:24
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