Poland: NATO Chief Officiates Over War Games

North Atlantic Treaty Organization
November 7, 2013

NATO Secretary General observes Steadfast Jazz live military demonstration in Poland

NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen together with the Presidents of Poland and Latvia, the Prime Minister of Lithuania, North Atlantic Council ambassadors, and senior Allied military commanders watched a live-fire training demonstration involving forces from across the Alliance and NATO partner Ukraine at a military base in northwestern Poland on Thursday (7 November 2013).

The demonstration was part of the Steadfast Jazz exercise which is testing air, land, maritime and special forces components of the NATO Response Force (NRF) between 2-9 November. “As we complete our biggest combat operation in Afghanistan at the end of next year, we will build on the lessons we learned there through exercises like this. So for NATO this is the shape of things to come,” said the Secretary General. He added that “Steadfast Jazz is more than just a test for our troops: it is the place where we can test our current and future capabilities, and our long-term plans to defend any ally, deploy anywhere and deter any threat. And the lessons that we learn here today will help to keep our forces strong, and to keep them strongly connected, in the years to come”.

Thursday’s live demonstration involved hundreds of troops from at a training area on the Drawsko Pomorski military base. The multinational demonstration involved tanks, artillery, combat troops and missile launchers tasked with repelling a simulated attack, as well as medical evacuation and chemical decontamination. “This is a NATO exercise – but officers from our partner countries, Finland and Sweden, were there too. And today, troops from Ukraine took part in this live exercise”, the Secretary General said.

Steadfast Jazz involves a total of 6,000 troops. Around 3,000 of the troops involved participated in the live exercise and 3,000 headquarters personnel are involved in the command and control drill. The exercise is to certify NATO’s Joint Force Command Brunssum to lead the NRF in 2014. The Secretary General also held talks with Polish President Bronisław Komorowski ahead of the exercise and then went on to Warsaw for talks with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk.