V4 Chiefs of the General Staff meet in Smokovec (19 June) At a welcoming ceremony on 18 June to mark the end of the 2014/2015 Slovak presidency of the Visegrad Group in Starý Smokovec, Chief of the General Staff of the SVK Armed Forces Lt Gen Milan Maxim welcomed his partners from the V4 countries. In his statement, the Chief of the SVK General Staff said: “During our presidency we’ve succeeded in finalizing two strategic documents which have created the conditions for further cooperation of our Armed Forces, especially when it comes to pooling and sharing and joint training.” He went on to remark on today’s challenges that “the current security challenges are forcing us to develop as close regional cooperation as possible within the North Atlantic Alliance.” Col Gen Viktor Muzhenko, Chief of the Ukrainian General Staff, was invited to attend Day 2 of the official programme. As part of his presentation, he expressed his view of Ukraine’s potential military cooperation with the V4 Armed Forces. In his closing remarks, Lt Gen Maxim said: “We signed a Joint Communiqué and a Technical Agreement on the completion of the joint V4 Battle Group in the first half of 2016.” After the signing of the documents, he handed over the presidency of the Visegrad Group to Lt Gen Josef Bečvář, Chief of the General Staff of the Czech Armed Forces. ● On 15 June, Chief of the General Staff of the SVK Armed Forces met with Theodore Sedgwick, the US Ambassador to Slovakia on the occasion of the end of his diplomatic mission. Lt Gen Milan Maxim emphasized the Ambassador’s contribution to development of mutual relations and awarded him with the Commemorative Badge of Chief of the General Staff of the SVK Armed Forces, 1st Grade.
Vershbow meets with Defence Minister (19 June) NATO Deputy Secretary General Alexander Vershbow praised the SVK MOD for increasing its defence expenditure in favour of modernization, with defence outlays now edging towards 20 % of the SVK MOD’s overall budget. The NATO Deputy Secretary General also appreciated Slovakia’s commitment to spend 1.6 % of GDP on defence by 2020. In a meeting with SVK Minister of Defence Glváč, he said: “I trust you will maintain defence spending in the long term, irrespective of political leadership.” He also commended the efforts being made by Slovakia to get rid of its dependence on Russian equipment and deliver assistance to Ukraine. Minister Glváč reiterated that the current MOD leadership are taking maximum efforts to raise defence spending. “We have a pledge from the Finance Minister to receive extra funding for some projects, just as in the case of the purchase of the Black Hawk helicopters,” he said. The Minister updated the Deputy Secretary General on the planned modernization projects in the field of land equipment.
● Part of the rotation of the members of the 5th Special Forces Regiment ending their term, mostly the communication and information systems experts, participated in the implementation of a voice and data communication project, in a secured and concealed mode, with the aim to enhance effectiveness of the activities at the Afghan National Army Special Forces Headquarters. In conjunction with the implementation team Harris, being the expert guarantor of the project, they built means of secured communication, performed specialized tasks, provided mentoring for the Afghan partners and provided protection to the expert guarantors of the project in provinces where military units are deployed. The outcome of their effort is a communication network based on cryptographic operation, which is what the country has long sought to built. ● On 15 June, the second training week started for the unit preparing to deploy to UNFICYP operation within the next rotation. It was aimed primarily at the practical training. Troops to swell the ranks of Blue Berets rehearsed the activities to be performed at checkpoints, procedures to be followed after entry to a minefield, crowd and riot control. In the end, at Kolíňanský vrch, they underwent tests aimed at road traffic regulations and medical preparation.
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(19 June) SVK Minister of Defence Martin Glváč held discussions about potential cooperation with Milica Pejanović-Đurišić and Zoran Jolevski, the Ministers of Defence of Montenegro and Macedonia, respectively. They agreed on their common interest in forging defence relations. Meeting with the Macedonian Minister of Defence, the Minister said: “We can offer our expertise from domestic crisis management as well as training of special forces at our military training facilities”. He stressed the need for the Chiefs of Defence to define the scope of further cooperation. Also discussed at the meeting with his Macedonian partner was the ongoing influx of immigrants. Minister Jolevski confirmed his interest in exchanging expertise with Slovakia in the field of unmanned aerial vehicles, in which Macedonia has a great deal of experience to draw on. The meeting with the Minister of Defence of Montenegro was also attended by the State Secretary of the SVK MOD, Miloš Koterec, who is gearing up for an official visit to Montenegro. Speaking about the integration process into the North Atlantic Alliance, the Minister of Defence of Montenegro said: “Your experience will be beneficial to us because today we are in a similar situation just as you were a couple of years ago.” To his counterparts, Martin Glváč offered the opportunity for their Armed Forces to complete military drills at the Training Centre Lešť and the CBRN Training and Testing Centre Zemianske Kostoľany. Cooperation in the field of military education is also under consideration.
(18 June) State Secretary of SVK MOD Miloš Koterec attended the international military exercise Capable Logistician 2015, which has been held on 1 – 26 June on the premises of the training center Bakony, Hungary. Nearly 1 800 troops with more than 550 pcs of equipment take part in the exercise. “Such large international exercises are the best way to verify abilities to cooperate and share the allied capabilities and partner capabilities, since the troops gain military tactical skills and get invaluable experience they can draw on later in multinational operations,” said the State Secretary. In the exercise, Slovakia is represented by 48 members of the SVK Armed Forces. According to 2nd Deputy Chief of the General Staff Maj Gen Pavel Macko, the exercise whose tradition was established 2 years ago in Slovakia, is viewed as particularly significant for the whole Alliance and for the Partners. It is aimed at testing and enhancing interoperability in the field of logistic support, not only as to the technical interoperability of the equipment and devices but also as to the procedural and operational interoperability of logistic units and staffs. Altogether 32 NATO and Partner countries take part in the exercise.
● On 19 – 20 June, the third annual Tank Days Laugarício was held in Trenčianske Stankovce under the auspices of SVK Minister of Defence Martin Glváč. The Military History Clubs from Slovakia, Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Croatia and Austria focused on a historic moment when the Soviet and American troops met at the River Elbe, near Torgau, Germany, in April 1945. The visitors were given an opportunity to see the equipment used by the SVK Armed Forces and watch the demonstration exercise of its members. Military Police organized a dynamic demonstration of a military action against an intruder. Equally, the members of Martin and Levice based mechanized battalion demonstrated their professional skills. ● SVK Ministry of Defence has invited a public tender aimed at a rental of a real estate to find a seat for the Military Archives – Central Registry Trnava. Department of Defence has no suitable office spaces and, to this end, it is determined to rent the same for a term of 15 years, with a possible option for a further 15-year-period. The office space must meet stringent criteria, as specified in terms and conditions of the public tender. The information on lodging the tender was advertised at the web pages of the Ministry of Defence and in a daily press. ● On 16 – 17 June, a course for MKS operators was organized at the Training, education and specialized preparation section of the Specialized medical and veterinary activities division of the Surgeon General’s Office Ružomberok, at its workplace in Liptovský Mikuláš.
Martin Glváč holds talks with partners
Capable Logistician 2015
● On 17 June, the 14th annual contest dubbed Children drawing soldiers ended by announcing results and presenting the winners with awards on the premises of Prešov-based helicopter wing. The contest was announced by SVK Minister of Defence Martin Glváč and SVK Chief of Defence Lt Gen Milan Maxim, in conjunction with the editorial staff of Obrana monthly. Nearly forty children, teachers and parents took the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the activities of the helicopter wing and with its equipment. The winners took the awards from hands of the representatives of Obrana editorial staff and Col Róbert Tóth, Commander of the helicopter wing.
Slovak Challenge 2015 (18 June) After a successful certification of contributions declared to the V4 EU Battle Group, the tactical exercise SLOVAK CHALLENGE 2015, aimed also at combat firing, which was held on 15 – 18 June in the Training Area of the Military District Lešť, has come to an end. COMBAT READY – that is a verdict of the national combat readiness evaluation team CREVAL, which verified whether the contributions declared to V4 EU BG, to include the mechanized company with its own logistic support platoon and a dressing station, CBR company, transportation company, tactical psychological team, military police platoon, movement control team and the explosive ordnance disposal team (EOD), have achieved the required capabilities. Their commanders took over certificates confirming readiness of the units declared to combat deployment within V4. Successful national certification of the declared task force is a solid foundation for performing the tasks of supranational certification with the framework of the exercise COMMON CHALLENGE to be held in November 2015 in Poland.
Medical staff deploy on Exercise Vigorous Warrior 2015 On 1 through 12 June 2015, members of the Office of the Surgeon ous Warrior was NATO’s largest exercise in the field of military medGeneral of the Slovak Armed Forces took part in an interical service. A total of 200 members of the Czech Armed Forcnational medical exercise, dubbed Vigorous Warrior es and 150 foreign participants attended the training ex2015 in Hradec Králové. The deployment exercise ercise. “The theme of the exercise was influenced by saw the participants from 15 countries bringing repeated and increasingly frequent occurrences of their specialized laboratories, rapid deployment highly infectious diseases. The drills underlined the teams for detection of epidemics, ambulance necessity of maintaining and deepening internavehicles with crews, and medical container tional cooperation at the level of field hospital, primodules to the training grounds. The modules mary medical care, laboratories, and extraction were connected to the hospital corridor of the means, as well as of rehearsing the ability to coop7th Field Hospital in service with the Czech erate with different teams,” emphasized the SurArmed Forces. The exercise was designed to geon General of the SVK Armed Forces, Col MUDr test the skills of NATO medical personnel and was Vladimír Lengvarský, MPH. The exercise was delivbased on a fictitious scenario where an international ered by the NATO Centre of Excellence for Military Medifield hospital and medical elements were deployed in an cine (NATO MILMED COE), based in Budapest, in liaison with environment with a high level of biological contamination risks, in- the Czech Armed Forces. The Vigorous Warrior series takes place cluding leakage of dangerous biological substances. Exercise Vigor- in two-year intervals, and this was the third such exercise.
eBULLETIN MoD SR
June 15 - 21, 2015