Most soldiers belong to Panzergrenadierbrigade 37 “Freistaat Sachsen” armoured infantry brigade from Frankenberg, Germany, which took over the lead of the land component of NATO’s Very High Readiness Joint Task Force (VJTF) on Jan. 1, 2023. As such the Saxonian brigade, commanded by Brigadier General Alexander Krone, and reinforced by Allied units, serves as the spearhead of the multinational NATO Response Force (NRF).
“Exercise Noble Jump 2023 offers a great opportunity to demonstrate the readiness, strategic mobility and combat effectiveness of the VJTF-Land Brigade 2023. We have deployed the “VJTF in a nutshell” with 1,500 soldiers and therefore a representative part of the more than 10,000 soldiers of the VJTF-Land Brigade to Sardinia,” said Brigadier General Krone.
During the month of May, the brigade and its assigned forces from NATO allies Belgium, Czechia, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway and Slovenia will conduct three major exercises simultaneously.
Exercise Noble Jump 2023, conducted at the Capo Teulada Training Area, is mainly aimed to test the brigade’s responsiveness and deployment capabilities, as well as show its combat effectiveness. Exercise Wettiner Heide 2023 conducted at the Bergen Training Area in Germany is aimed to hone the skills of the combat support forces of the VJTF while Exercise Wettiner Schwert 2023, conducted at the Combat Manoeuvre Training Centre, will test the skills of the remaining German and Czech combat assets of the brigade supported by Medical Forces from the Netherlands. Overall, 5,000 soldiers from Allied nations will participate in these exercises.
As part of their deployment to Sardinia the German troops together with their allies will conduct a series of live fire exercises at the Capo Teulada Training Area, which will culminate in a Joint Allied Powers Demonstration Day (JAPDD), showcasing the readiness of NATO’s war-fighting capabilities on May 12.
