‘The threat Russia poses is very urgent ...we must be ready now’
BRITISH troops are leading Nato war games on Estonia’s border with Russia in the alliance’s largest military drill since the ColdWar.
The Army has deployed its latest Apache AH-64E attack helicopters to spearhead the exercise, which also saw nearly 200 soldiers take part in a ground assault yesterday.
It is the first time on Nato drills for the newly serviced chopper.
The battlefield practice comes as tensions flare between the alliance and Russia after undeclared Kremlin spies were found in the UK, Estonia, Poland and Germany.
Brigadier Giles Harris, commander of the UK contribution to Nato’s enhanced Forward Presence mission in Estonia and Poland, said after the exercise: “The threat Russia poses is very urgent.
“I’m not going to second guess what may or may not happen but as military personnel, our job is to be ready. There’s no point waiting to get ready, we must be ready now.
“What is playing out in Ukraine provides us with the lessons we need to learn.”
Brigadier Berry added: “Our mindset is, whether this threat is today, next year or in 10 years’ time, we must make ourselves as ready as we can be right now.”
Britons made up the lion’s share of the Nato forces involved in yesterday’s Apache helicopter and ground assault operation.
Landmark
Some 130 out of 190 troops were from B Company 3rd Battalion Parachute Regiment with the other 60 hailing from the US’s 1st Squadron, 73rd Cavalry Regiment, which operates out of its North Carolina HQ.
British Lieutenant Colonel David Lambert said: “This is a landmark moment. The training is genuinely as realistic as it gets.
“There is no artificiality in this, it’s just good training from the lowest level all the way to the top. We are ready to fight today.”
In total, the 16 Air Assault Brigade Combat Team – the Army’s global response unit – is leading a force of more than 2,300 soldiers, sailors and air crew from four countries who are working together in the Baltic republic.
The unit falls under “very high readiness” status, which means it can be deployed to anywhere in the world within five days.
Lt Col Lambert continued yesterday: “One of the greatest challenges is fighting through [inhospitable weather] conditions. We have to be ready to fly and fight in poor conditions, day or night and Apache is ready to do that.”
The training is aimed at Nato’s airborne forces building their ability to respond together to crises.
Exercise Swift Response includes 13,000 troops from 17 nations carrying out six co-ordinated airborne operations over the space of one week in Estonia, Moldova, North Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Sweden, Hungary and Italy.
Armed forces personnel told the Daily Express that a decades-long focus on counter-guerrilla insurgencies was now shifting to countering emerging threats such as Russia.
The show of force comes less than 24 hours after Russian President Vladimir Putin accused
the so-called “arrogant” West of risking a global conflict.
In a speech in Moscow’s Red Square to mark the Soviet Union’s part in defeating Nazi Germany in the Second World War, the tyrant warned that the nuclear power’s “strategic forces” were combat ready and he accused the West of stoking tensions.
Brigadier Charles Harris told
reporters in Estonia: “Our aim here, very simply, is to defend every inch of this country’s soil if required. And we’re doing this with Estonia, on behalf of Nato, to protect our entire eastern flank.
“Living here with my family, I have come to understand what Nato and Estonia mean to each other, and we are a very, very powerful team.”