Anakonda-16: Belsat.eu reports from drills in Poland (photos)


[vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”211142″ img_size=”large” alignment=”center”][vc_column_text]Anakonda, the biggest military exercise in eastern Europe since the Cold War, kicked off in Poland on June, 7. The exercise includes night-time helicopter assault and the dropping of US paratroopers to build a temporary bridge over Poland’s Vistula river. A Belsat.eu reporter visited the Polish towns of Toruń and Chełmno.

Interestingly, a military game has started today in the Belarusian town of Berestovitsa. According to its scenario, for the first time in the history of independent Belarus a curfew will be imposed in the town, and people will be living under conditions of the make-shift war. Many experts believe the game to be a response to Anakonda-16.[/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”211154″ img_size=”large” alignment=”center”][vc_column_text]The generals say that information warfare is as important as  helicopter attacks. Both Polish and U.S. military  have a serious approach to documenting the drills: each combat unit has its own Facebook, Twitter and Instagram profile and there is  always a cameraman and photographer in their ranks.[/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”211231″ img_size=”large” add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center”][vc_column_text]The soldiers of the 82nd Airborne Division flew out of Fort Bragg in North Carolina, the British military of the 16th Air Assault Brigade took off the base in Germany’s Rammstein, while Poles from the 6th airborne parachute brigade left Krakow to form an air group of 30 plane over Toruń and hold a joint parachutist landing 1200 in the Polish capital of gingerbread.

The initiative of conducting Anakonda-16 came up in 2014, shortly after Russia’s annexation in Crimea and the flare of hostilities in Donbas. It took Polish military two years to prepare a hybrid simulation of war. Despite the fact that the best part of NATO member countries are taking part in the drills, they are regarded as ‘Polish’. Six countries are not participating, including France that is hosting Euro-2015 and Norway, where NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg comes from.[/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”211194″ img_size=”large” add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center”][vc_column_text]At the same time, the states which are eager to join NATO (Macedonia, Georgia) or closely cooperate with the alliance (Sweden and Finland) have sent their soldiers to Poland. Ukrainians, who try not to miss any NATO event since signing the program Partnership for Peace, have also arrived.[/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”211844″ img_size=”large” add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center”][vc_column_text]Oficially, the drills are being staged on June 7 – 17, but U.S. units started to come to Poland in mid-May. The impression is that the Americans brought to Poland everything they need –  equipment, weapons, personal hygieneproducts and books for military libraries. The exercise aims at being as war-like as possible, and if one wants to clean teeth during the war, they  could count on their own toothpaste. As an exception, the Americans agreed to buy mineral water and fuel in Poland.[/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”211130″ img_size=”large” add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center”][vc_column_text]Asked if the Americans will to take U.S. equipment back, Ben Hodges, Commander of United States Army Europe, did not say ‘yes’ or ‘no’.  As in February 2017 there will be NATO forces on rotational basis, it is likely to remain in Poland. At least, Patriot anti-aircraft missile complexes will be ensuring security during the NATO summit in Warsaw in July.

After every ground training, a briefing for the press is held. As a rule, journalists ask about Russia in the first turn.

The commanders claim that the game is not simulating Russia’s aggression against Poland. “It is a simulation of fending off attacks on Baltic countries on the part of the imagined enemy in Scandinavia,” General Marek Tomaszycki said.

Asked why Russia overreacted, the commander of the exercise made a helpless gesture. “Our game is aimed at confonting hybrid combat actions; it is rather defensive maneuvers,” Tomaszycki said and added  that Russia had received an invitation to the exercises, but failed to send observers.

On the second day, Germany’s 130th Engineer Battalion from Germany was to build a pontoon bridge across the Vistula.

On the bank of the Vistula there were thirty M3 amfibious vehicles and a hybrid of tractor and tank – a strange vehicle with an excavator bucket and a machine gun on a small tower…[/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”211214″ img_size=”large” add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center”][vc_single_image image=”211239″ img_size=”large” alignment=”center”][vc_column_text]But a few hours later ‘amphibians’ drove in the Vistula, and the soldiers managed to construct a 330-metre  pontoon bridge within 35 minutes.[/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”211255″ img_size=”large” alignment=”center”][vc_column_text]The level of training the Polish army has reached by now has become  possible due to the fact that we are training together with the best soldiers from the United States, Great Britain, Italy and other countries of the alliance,” General Mirosław Rużański told journalists.[/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”211848″ img_size=”large” add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center”][vc_column_text]Last year the Polish media tried to calculate for how many days Putin would seize Poland. According to the best part of journalists and experts,  NATO, with good intentions, would not have enough time to come and rescue the country. Anakonda reassure Poles: NATO rapid reaction forces have the opportunity to appear here within a few hours.

“We can look to the future without fear because we have good allies and partners”, Rużański said.

Denis Dziuba/MS

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