On Saturday, December 7, members of the Regional Command North-East of the Estonian Defence League held simulated defensive battles as part of multinational military exercise Pikne. Units from Estonia, France, the United Kingdom and Latvia were involved in the training.
“We reached combat readiness during this night, the troops familiarised themselves with the positions, conducted reconnaissance, and in the morning we continued preparing the defensive positions to prepare for the main battle,” said Lieutenant Colonel Jaanus Ainsalu, Commander of Regional Command North-East (Estonian Defence League, EDL) before the battles. “For us exercise Pikne is a great opportunity to practice shoulder-to-shoulder cooperation between the units of other EDL regions, as well as with our good NATO allies from France and the UK.”
During the exercise, participating units honed their skills in conducting offensive and defensive actions, as well as cooperating with allies in an international environment.
Combat engineers from Viru district of the Regional Command North-East (EDL) joined the exercise on Friday evening, and shortly after formation of the unit stared conducting their assignments. “The exercise has gone well, our men are motivated and so far everything have gone according to plan,” said Senior Sergeant Egert Lepasaar, leader of the engineer squad at the Viru district. “Exercise Pikne gives us a good opportunity to also to improve our cooperation with other engineer units of the Regional Command.”
For the reserve troops of the Engineer Battalion (1st Infantry Brigade, Estonian Defence Forces) participating in snap exercise Okas 24-2, the exercise will continue until December 15 in a flexible form. This means that the troops can return home today, but must remain in increased readiness to return to duty in the set timeframe once ordered.
International military exercise Pikne („Lightning“), part of NATO activity Brilliant Eagle, focuses on Allied rapid deployability and interoperability in the Baltic Sea region. During the exercise, supplementary Allied units are rapidly deployed to Estonia via land, sea and air, to support and train together with the NATO Multinational Battlegroup in Estonia, the Estonian Defence Forces and Estonian Defence League in a simulated war situation.
The exercise, conducted from December 2-15, 2024, is led by the Estonian Division and nearly 2,000 troops from Estonia, Latvia, USA, France and United Kingdom participate in it. During the first week of the exercise, the focus is on deployment of units and increasing interoperability. During the second week of the exercise, a Live Fire Exercise (LFX) will be conducted at the Sirgala training area.
