US Army soldiers are conducting a small-unit and leader-training exercise with Latvian Army personnel in Riga, Latvia.
Involving approximately 150 soldiers from the US Army Europe’s (USAREUR)173rd Infantry Brigade Combat Team (Airborne), the exercise is the second in a series of expanded US training activities scheduled to take place in Poland and the Baltic region over the next few months and beyond.
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Conducted at the request of the host nations in the Baltic region, the multinational training drills fulfil the USAREUR’s strategic objective of preserving and enhancing Nato interoperability, and demonstrates the US’ commitment to Nato allies in Eastern Europe.
Approximately 150 paratroopers from the 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team (173rd ABCT) are already conducting a bilateral infantry exercise with the Polish military in north-western Poland, amid the escalating crisis in Ukraine.
Additional land exercises planned across Europe in the coming months include Rochambeau and Combined Resolve II, scheduled to take place in France and Germany in May, respectively.
They will be followed by the multilateral joint land and air force training event, code-named Exercise Saber Strike in Lithuania and Latvia, in June.
The US Army will also stage two drills in August, namely Exercise Immediate Response in Slovenia and Exercise Saber Junction 14 in Germany, and the battalion-level command post exercise, Cooperative Resolve in Turkey in September.
Image: The US Army Europe’s 173rd Infantry Brigade Combat Team (Airborne) soldiers meet Latvian soldiers after a ceremony commemorating new exercises in Latvia. Photo: courtesy of Sgt Daniel Cole.
