Europe’s largest NATO artillery drills begin in Finland
Photo: Finnish military (Getty Images)
NATO's largest artillery military exercise, Lightning Strike 24, began in Finland on November 4. It is part of a series of Alliance member drills in Europe, according to the US Army Europe and Africa press release.
The Lightning Strike 24 exercise is part of the Dynamic Front 25 series.
Over 5,000 service members from the US and 28 allied and partner countries will participate. They will use more than 130 different weapons systems.
In addition to Finland, the exercises will take place in Estonia, Germany, Poland, and Romania. In Finland, they will run until November 28 in the Rovajärvi and Rovaniemi areas of Lapland.
The drills aim to demonstrate NATO's defense capabilities in Northern Europe and to enhance operational command, control, and cooperation with NATO’s Joint Rapid Reaction Corps.
Around 3,600 Finnish soldiers and approximately 1,250 international forces will take part.
Exercise leader Colonel Janne Mäkitalo highlighted that the scale of the exercises shows Finland can receive allied support "very rapidly indeed" if needed.
"This is a good example of the fact that our own field artillery, combined with Allied capabilities, forms a strong defense in the northern part of Finland and NATO," he said.
Earlier, we reported that Latvia will host NATO's first full-scale multinational brigade exercises from November 1 to 14.
