Wind Spring 19
Romanian and American forces came together to perform the live-fire exercise Wind Spring in Cincu as part of Saber Guardian 19.
“This exercise promoted interoperability in coordinating and synchronizing the precision of the execution and the use of both Romanian and US forces in the exercise,” said (to Sgt. Savannah Lang, 126th Public Affairs Operations Center) Col. Kelly D. McNeese, the 211th Regional Support Group Commander. “The coordinated activity that they took was pretty impressive.”
The training included react to contact, close air support, medical evacuation, call for fire, direct fire, and counter-attack exercises.
The second week of the “Wind Spring 19” exercise brought increased training and dynamics to the 81st Mechanized Brigade soldiers, who were engaged in FTX (Field Training Exercise), along with the Ukrainian partner and the structures of the 2 Mountain Troops Brigade Sarmizegetusa.
The allied forces were organized into a battle group consisting of soldiers from “Transylvanian Dragons” from the 811 Infantry Battalion and the 25th Ukrainian Airborne Brigade in the 1st echelon, respectively the soldiers of the 191 Infantry Battalion “Colonel Radu Golescu” in the second echelon.
Also taking part was the Combat Support Company of the 811 Infantry Battalion “Dej”, which had the mission of assuring fire support for maneuvering subunits.
The enemy forces were played by the 2nd Mountain Troops Brigade Sarmizegetusa, through two companies.
For the Infantry Company of the 191st Infantry Battalion “Colonel Radu Golescu” the mission was to take the fight over from the Ukrainian company and execute the delay on successive alignments, mainly, the alignment and the blocking of the enemy’s progress.
After the enemy resumed the offensive, the infantry structures from the fighting groups opened the fire and the artillery executed the stooping fire. 21 LANCER MIGs intervened to support the forces in contact with the enemy, destroying its artillery subunits. An impressive, visual and auditory effect was produced by LAROM weapon system, belonging to the 8 LAROM Brigade of Focsani, neutralizing the enemy’s artillery and infantry. Following was the 152 mm caliber gun-howitzer, belonging to the 817 Artillery Battalion from Prundu-Bargaului, and then, as the enemy retreated approaching the positions of its own forces, it was consecutively engaged with all infantry weapon systems: caliber 120 and 82 mm mortars, 14.5 mm caliber machine guns mounted on TAB (Amphibious Armoured Personnel Carrier) and AG-9 grenade launcher. After this moment, a wounded serviceman was evacuated with an MLI MEDEVAC vehicle. On the right flank, an IAR 330 PUMA SOCAT helicopter cell opened fire on the enemy with 57 mm unguided reactive missiles – PRND
An important role in this exercise was played by observer-controllers, officers and non-commissioned officers monitoring activities. If at STX (a tactical situation solving exercise) they stopped the sequence of the exercise and could ask questions to correct the actions, here OCs (Observers / Controllers) only record the situation, drawing from or introducing into the battle different elements.
The counterattack was conducted by an infantry company from the 191st Infantry Battalion from Arad, supported by a 4 AH-64 APACHE helicopter squadron from the USAREUR 12 Fighter Helicopter Brigade. The final stage of the exercise was the insertion of a light infantry company from CH-47 CHINOOK helicopter to execute a maneuver of enveloping and destroying the enemy.
The Mountain Troops
300 personnel from the 2nd Mountain Troop Brigade, at battalion level structure, played the enemy part for the other major units and units taking part in the exercise according to the Wind Spring scenario. The 30th Mountain Troop Battalion, the 33th Mountain Troop Battalion, and other combat and support elements from the 2nd Mountain Troop Brigade carried out the training for solving a platoon-level tactical situation. They had the opportunity to check their combat techniques according to the specific operating standards.
The structure that formed the enemy, from the 2nd Mountain Troop Brigade Sarmizegetusa, was led by the 30th Mountain Troop Battalion “Dragoslavele”, which had the most forces. The other units were part of the 33rd Mountain Troop Battalion Posada, 206th Artillery Battalion General Mihail Lăcătuşu and 228th Anti-aircraft Defense Battalion “Piatra Craiului”.
Medical Evacuation
The 30 service personnel from the 81st Mechanized Brigade ‘General Grigore Balan’ attending the Combat Life Saver Course, organized at the National Joint Training Center ‘Getica’ in Cincu, together with 20 militaries from the subordinated structures of the brigade practiced the embarkation/disembarkation and transfer of patients to a MEDEVAC configuration and equipment helicopter and to a Puma SOCAT IAR 330 Combat helicopter belonging to 71 Air Base General Emanoil Ionescu from Campia Turzii.
The logistics
Specialists in the transport and storage of fuel from the 4th Logistics Base “Transilvania”, jointly with the American partner, showed a presentation of the fuel storage facilities and the technique used in this sense.
The work was carried out under the command of Colonel Cristian Rus, Chief of Staff of 4th Logistics Center “Transilvania”, with US partners under the command of Captain Sara Raxter, the commander of a fuel insurance and transport company.
On this occasion, Sergeant Kikarus Redding described to the Romanian soldiers the route that the liquid fuel goes through, from the reception to the technical supply, explaining the facilities offered by the equipment.
The Romanian servicemen invited the US military in their own district, describing their storage facilities and the specific fuel handling procedures.
At the end of the activity, as a sign of appreciation for the beautiful collaboration between the two structures, Colonel Rus offered Captain Raxter the plaque of the 4th Logistics Base “Transylvania”.
