Around 1,400 NATO soldiers took part in exercise Winter Camp in Estonia this year, testing their infantry and armour capabilities against harsh winter conditions.
The annual exercise, which ran from 29 January to 6 February in 2022, involved British, French and Estonian forces from NATO multinational battlegroup in Tapa, just 100 kilometers (62 miles) from the Russian border.
As the largest winter exercise for the battlegroup, Winter Camp incorporated live firing, anti-tank exercises, infantry patrols and engineering tasks.
Demonstrating winter interoperability under the command of the 1st Infantry Brigade, British, French and Estonian soldiers worked alongside one another across a range of armour, infantry, planning, engineering and artillery scenarios.
Members of the UK-led Battlegroup also joined by soldiers from the British Army’s Parachute and Yorkshire Regiments, who learned to train alongside armour in a winter environment. “Since our arrival in September, we have placed great emphasis on increasing the Battlegroup’s capability and developing integration and interoperability with our allies,” said LTC Simon Worth, Commanding Officer of the eFP Estonia Battlegroup.
NATO’s enhanced Forward Presence Battlegroup Estonia is currently led by the Royal Tank Regiment from the United Kingdom, with France and Denmark providing forces on a rotational basis. Iceland also contributes to the eFP. The eFP Battlegroups in Latvia, Lithuania and Poland are led by Canada, Germany and the US respectively and all NATO Battlegroups have been integrated into their host nations’ brigades to ensure maximum cohesion between Allied forces.