It began several days ago. Nearly one thousand soldiers are involved, along with around 200 pieces of equipment. The exercise consists of several stages. One of them is the movement of forces and equipment over a long distance.
“This is a very important element of the exercise, during which we check how highly mobile we are. It is a test of our combat capability,” comments Lieutenant Colonel Marek Fiałka, commander of the Dragon mechanized battalion.
The soldiers, together with their equipment, are marching to the training area in Nowa Dęba, where the battalion tactical group will be assessed on its execution of procedures and tasks in accordance with its wartime role.
The movement itself is a fairly complex logistical process. It requires the coordination of many elements in time and space. “In practice, moving such a convoy consists of several stages. The entire force is not moved at the same time, as this would cause excessive congestion and chaos on the roads, especially since we are traveling on expressways and motorways,” says Captain Paweł Pławiak, responsible for organizing the transport. Cooperation with the 10th Logistic Brigade from Opole, which provided low-loader combinations for transporting tracked vehicles, is also invaluable to the armored soldiers.
The movement is only one of the episodes. A number of activities await the 10th Armored Cavalry Brigade at Nowa Dęba. There, too, the soldiers from the “tenth” will cooperate with other units, including the 19th Mechanized Brigade. However, the exchange of experience and cooperation will not involve only the Land Forces, but also the Territorial Defence Forces. As Lieutenant Colonel Fiałka adds:
The Dragon Battalion is not slowing down. There are many tasks this year. One of them is moving to the eastern flank, followed by joint training with other units stationed there. We will cross a broad water obstacle there. There are many tasks ahead of us. At the end of this exercise, there will be a live-fire phase—fire control during an attack and in defense.
Both the Karakal-20 exercise and Anakonda-20 itself are long-planned, regularly conducted exercises of a defensive nature; they are not directed against any state. The scale and assumptions of the exercise are a response to contemporary threats and result from commitments made during the 2016 NATO Summit in Warsaw. The safety, health and lives of the soldiers remain the highest priority; therefore, real needs and capabilities will be taken into account when planning the course of the exercise.