Communications specialists of the Lithuanian Armed Forces are training at international NATO communications Exercise Steadfast Cobalt 2019 in Bucharest (Romania) as of mid-May. The annual training event of the Alliance tests readiness of the NATO Communication and Information Systems Group (NCISG) to ensure information exchange among NATO forces and headquarters and communication worldwide.
The exercise involves over 1,000 soldiers from 25 NATO allies and 35 different communications units and will run until early June. Lithuania is represented at the exercise by soldiers of the Defence Staff, Headquarters Company of the Mechanised Infantry Brigade Iron Wolf and the Communications and Information Systems Battalion.
NATO Exercise Steadfast Cobalt 2019 is defensive in character, it trains capabilities of communications units and tests deployable communications and information system capabilities of the Alliance ensuring successful execution of tasks of the NATO Response Force and other headquarters in any place of the world at any time.
This has been the second consecutive year soldiers of the NATO enhanced Forward Presence Battalion Battle Groups in the Baltic states and Poland have joined the exercise — their role in the training was to ensure interoperability with information systems of the NATO Response Force.
Held in Romania this year, Exercise Steadfast Cobalt was previously organised on Lithuania’s territory three times — in 2014 (at Division General Stasys Raštikis Lithuanian Armed Forces School in Kaunas), 2017 and 2018 (Vytautas the Great Jaeger Battalion in Kaunas). Both, as a participant and the host, Lithuania has proved it is capable of hosting an exercise of such scope and has informed the organisers of its readiness to do it again in the future.
NATO Communication and Information Systems Group (NCISG) is a structural unit of NATO’s operational capabilities. It is responsible for providing command and control to the NATO Response Force in operations worldwide. It is a unit of the most cutting-edge information exchange and technologies manned by top qualification subject-matter experts and officers.
NATO Response Force (NRF) is a high readiness technologically advanced multinational NATO force, one the Alliance’s cornerstone military instruments. NRF comprises military units assigned by NATO allies that are held on standby in their home countries to be ready to deploy within a set time to the area of operation in case a decision to deploy NRF was taken. And in such a case, NRF deploys within 5 days.
Photo source: https://shape.nato.int/