An international winter survival exercise involving roughly 90 soldiers from Canada, Lithuania, and Hungary is currently running in the King Mindaugas Hussar Battalion, city of Panevėžys and the surrounding area. 74 Hungarian soldiers from the 39th Infantry Battalion of the 5th Bocskai István Infantry Brigade are honing their skills of surviving complicated and adverse conditions. They are accompanied by 11 members of the King Mindaugas Hussar Battalion. The exercise is conducted by 5 qualified instructors of the Canadian Army with assistance from 2 instructors of the Reconnaissance Course of the Juozas Lukša Training Centre.
The troops have already familiarised with the exercise concept and theoretical material on survival in extreme conditions over the first two days on training. The rest of the exercise will focus on hands-on assignments training to use the theoretical knowledge acquired beforehand in practise.
The troops are practicing entrenchment, fire-making, water extraction, acting in ice cold water, fishing without proper equipment and other skills at the winter survival exercise.
Among other organisers of the exercise there are service dog handlers of the Panevėžys City Police Headquarters and 20 riflemen from the Lithuanian Riflemen's Union, while security during the exercise provided by Panevėžys Fire Rescue Service.
