The 1st Infantry Brigade of the Estonian Defence Forces, participating in the Hedgehog 2025 exercise, today confirmed achieving combat readiness in the exercise framework, having formed its reservists and provided military skills refreshment training to its sub-units in the previous days, and is now ready to carry out combat tasks.
“In parallel with the training of the reservists, the commanders of the command posts have been able to practice all the battle plans and now it is the right time to put these two things together and start executing the combat missions,” said Lieutenant Colonel Eero Aija, Deputy Commander of the 1st Infantry Brigade, describing the course of the exercise. He added that now the plans drawn up earlier will be put to the test in realistic conditions and the units will begin to carry out their tasks in the field.
Lieutenant Colonel Aija has two main expectations for the Hedgehog 2025 exercise. “We are looking forward to a difficult exercise so that we can put the plans we have made under pressure. Naturally, I expect the same commitment from the reservists as they have shown so far,” said Aija.
The Deputy Brigade Commander also emphasized the important role of the allies and the high level of interoperability of all units in the Exercise Hedgehog 2025. “Our allies are extremely important. Our allies are part of the 1st Infantry Brigade as part of the NATO Battlegroup in Estonia, which includes soldiers from the United Kingdom and France – they are involved in our battle plans, and in the same way, they are executing those plans here during the exercises,” Lieutenant Colonel Aija said, adding that there was also very close coordination between the brigade headquarters, the allies battlegroup and the battalions during the preparatory phase of the exercise.
The achievement of combat readiness was also confirmed by Lieutenant Colonel Priit Heinloo, commander of the 1st Infantry Brigade Engineer Battalion. “We’ve conducted first controlled detonations to recall the basic engineer skills for reservists. We’ve also practiced interdiction and reminded them infantry skills,” Heinloo said. The commander of the Engineer Battalion is very pleased with the contribution of the reservists. As well as being reminded of forgotten skills, they have also been taught new ones.
“For example, we’ve got a new mine drill that allows us to quickly drill holes in solid surface. We have reorganised our command posts to make them even harder to hit. We have also covered the principles of drone warfare,” said the commander of the Engineer Battalion, describing the innovations in his units.
The commander of the 1st Infantry Brigade’s air defence battalion, reservist Johannes Nõges, who arrived at Hedgehog 25, also confirmed that his unit has reached combat readiness by today. “There have been quite a few reminders, I myself served in 2014-2015 as a conscript. There is a lot of joy in rediscovering, the mood is good, the weather is normal and we can manage,” said Ensign Nõges.
“Our ‘Sergeis’ – the ZU-23 anti-aircraft weapon – have a new sight and a so-called joystick on top, whereas before it was all done manually. In addition, we now have a thermal camera, we can see the movement of a warm body from a distance. It’s completely new to me, during my conscript training it was purely on iron sights. It’s good to see that things are improving,” said reservist Nõges.
During wartime, the role of an air defence battalion is to repel and destroy the enemy’s air attack vehicles – aircrafts, helicopters, unmanned aerial vehicles. This task is carried out with the help of ground weapon systems: missiles and cannons. In addition to the ZU-23 anti-aircraft cannon, the main armament includes the Mistral missile system, which is capable of shooting down air vehicles if necessary.
Exercise Hedgehog 2025 is the largest exercise of the Estonian Defence Forces this year, during which the planning and execution of military operations is practiced as well as cooperation between Estonian and allied units is enhanced. Participants in the exercise will include active duty, conscripts, reservists, members of the Defence League and soldiers from allied countries.
