British Troops Taking Part In NATO Balkan Exercises

More than 1,000 British troops will be spending three months on manoeuvres in the Balkans as part of a wide-raging series of military exercises to boost readiness and interoperability.

A total of 18 separate activities will be taking place under the umbrella of Operation Chelonia; one such exercise, Austere Wolf has been running during September and involved a large-scale amphibious landing on a beach in Albania with no established infrastructure.

Other nations involved in the scheduled Balkan exercises with the U.K. include Serbia, Romania, Kosovo, Georgia, Croatia, and Moldova.

During Austere Wolf the British Army's Theatre Sustainment Brigade established a "seaport of disembarkation" on an isolated beach not far from Pasha Liman Naval Base in southern Albania to test their ship-to-shore capabilities.

They used Mexeflote, a motorised floating platform to offload vehicles and equipment that would stretch further than 1.5 miles if laid end-to-end. The kit, including Foxhound armoured vehicles, was ferried onto the beach from MV Hartland Point, a 13,500-tonne roll-on-roll-off vessel, which had sailed on a nine-day voyage from Marchwood Military Port in Southampton.

In a recent press statement Minister for the Armed Forces Luke Pollard commented: "These exercises show our unwavering commitment to standing united with our allies and working hand in hand to boost our collective security. The UK has always had a major presence in the Western Balkans, and it’s important we demonstrate a united front to ensure regional security.

Working closely with our NATO partners, we are demonstrating our combined efforts to safeguard peace, stability, and security in the region."

You can read further details about the exercises on the U.K Ministry of Defence website and the Albanian MoD website