On April 13 three-day long Civil and Military Cooperation Specialist Course (CIMIC) for the Baltic States' national armed forces ended at the General Jonas Žemaitis Military Academy.
The course involved troops from the Mechanized Infantry Brigade Iron Wolf, National Defence Volunteer Force, King Mindaugas and Lithuanian Grand Duke Butigeidis Dragoon Motorised Infantry Battalion, and military personnel from Estonia and Denmark. The central aim of the course is to familiarize troops with CIMIC and Information Operations specialist's actions in conventional operations and to provide opportunity to practice non-kinetic capability planning through military decision making process.
The course was organised by the Lithuanian Land Force command. Lectures were delivered by instructors from the Lithuanian armed Forces' Strategic Communication Department, Joint Headquarters, units of the Land Force, and by the Lithuanian Representative at the Officer of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees Renata Kuleš. The course was organised as a continuation of education and military training delivered to the Baltic States' national brigades by the Danish Advisory Training Staff (DATS).
"It is wonderful to have cooperation with CIMIC specialists of the Baltic States continued successfully. This year the course was attended by the military from the Estonian Armed Forces, last year we developed successful collaboration with Latvian CIMIC specialists as well. A huge success of the course is to have Denmark's Lt Col Sven. E. Straarup in it, he accentuated the key role of on-kinetic capabilities both in Peacekeeping and conventional operations", said Maj Gediminas Latvys, Head of the CIMIC Department of the Lithuanian Land Force Command.
According to Maj G. Latvys, the majority of representatives of the Lithuanian Armed Forces who delivered announcement have experience from multinational deployments to Afghanistan or other multinational postings.
The course is not the only event to develop CIMIC capabilities in the Baltic armed forces. Since 2006 annual Baltic CIMIC Functional Area Specialist Course has been held, approximately 100 civilian and military personnel from all the three Baltic States have been trained, as of next year it is planned to invite representatives of the Baltic States' national armed forces and observers from Denmark to participate in the Lithuanian Land Force's non-kinetic capability exercise "Trust-13".
Information by the Lithuanian Land Force Command
Photo by Eugenijus Žygaitis (NDVF)
