On June 4 official opening ceremony of the largest military training event in Lithuania this year BALTOPS 2012 took place in Lithuania. Troops from the USA, the Royal Netherlands Navy and NATO command.
The event took place in the Lithuanian Grand Duke Butigeidis Dragoon Motorised Infantry Battalion (Klaipėda) with attendance of Chief of Defence of Lithuania LT Gen Arvydas Pocius, mayors of Klaipėda City and Kretinga District, commanders of foreign military units, commanders of Lithuanian armed forces branches and commands, and other distinguished guests.
"A great honor as well as responsibility has been given to Lithuania to be among the 4 countries that host naval and land operations of the Exercise. It is a challenge for the military of Lithuania for which we have been preparing consistently and genuinely to demonstrate once again Lithuania's resolve to contribute with our might to the attainment of key goals of the allies. This wide-ranging will bring great benefit in terms of skills of the armed forces and individual servicemembers in a particularly broad spectrum of tasks, as well as contribute to effective cooperation of countries in the Baltic Sea Region in the event of a crisis", said Chief of Defence of Lithuania Lt Gen Arvydas Pocius in the opening ceremony.
Deputy of BALTOPS 2012 Ground Combat Element and Senior US Officer for BALTOPS 2012 in Lithuania Col Darren Richardson in the opening address thanked for the opportunity given to the US marines to join the exercise in Lithuania and to train to respond to transnational threats together with Lithuanian and other country's military personnel, to strengthen military cooperation between Lithuania and the USA and to ensure security in the Baltic Sea Region.
On June 5 the second portion of BALTOPS 2012 will begin: troops of the Reconnaissance Company of the Motorised Infantry Brigade "Iron Wolf", Lithuanian Grand Duke Algirdas Mechanised Infantry Battalion, and US marines will train joint combat actions - deployment, campaign, obstacle crossing, warfare in inhabited area, and live firing exercise. This phase will prepare the training audience for the most important day of BALTOPS 2012 - debarkation operation on June 11 which will be held in Lithuania, Nemirseta (Palanga Distr.) for the first time.
BALTOPS 2012 which will conclude on June 16 involves 12 countries - the USA, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Germany, France, Denmark, Poland, the Netherlands, Georgia, Russia, and Sweden. The Exercise is held in the territorial waters of Germany, Poland, Lithuania and Estonia of the Baltic Sea.
Multinational cooperation in case of crisis in the region is enhanced and security in the Baltic Sea region fostered in BALTOPS 2012. During the Exercise military forces will conduct joint maritime operations from maneuvering and patrolling to joint operations with other forces - air and land.
US first organised the naval exercise BALTOPS since 1972. Since 1993 the series has been held under the Partnership for Peace program. Over four decades BALTOPS grew both in number of participating forces and in magnitude becoming one of the largest training events in the Baltic Region. Lithuania has been sending naval assets to take part in BALTOPS since 1994.
