The Tactical Group, which is part of Romania's multinational Batte Group (MN BG ROM), composed of France, Belgium, Luxembourg and Spain, participated in its last tactical exercise of the year.
The exercise consisted in integrating all units into a defensive structure simulating the real deployment on the Romanian-Ukrainian border.
The first phase of the exercise focused on force and field preparation. During this stage, the logistic support units of each country played a crucial role in supplying all the necessary equipment, thus simulating the provisioning for a 10-day defensive deployment. In parallel, the engineer units, in collaboration with the French mechanized company, started the organization and preparation of the terrain to build the defensive positions on the manoeuvre field.
The second phase began with the movement of the Spanish Mechanised Tactical Subgroup, which relieved the French company in position and established itself on the defensive. Finally, in the third phase, the Spanish detachment executed a counter-attack on the trench area, finally reorganising and forming the back-up of the multinational battalion.
This training exercise, which is key to strengthening cooperation and interoperability between NATO members, served as a partial rehearsal for the ‘Dacian Spring’ exercises planned for the first half of 2025, which will involve the actual deployment of all Battle Group assets to positions close to Romania's eastern border.
Land deployment on eastern flank
Romania's Forward Land Forces Multinational Battle Group is one of eight counterparts deployed along the eastern flank of the Atlantic Alliance to contribute to the deterrence and defence of this area. The activities to be conducted are similar to those already carried out by the Spanish Armed Forces deployed in Latvia and Slovakia. These include carrying out exercises of the unit itself and others that are considered, integrated into the Multinational Brigade led with France, as well as those developed in cooperation with the Romanian Armed Forces.
At the 2016 Warsaw Summit, it was decided to reinforce ‘deterrence’ as a fundamental tool to guarantee the protection of allied territory on the Eastern flank. Subsequently, at the Madrid Summit in 2022, the Alliance recognised Collective Defence as the first priority among the missions envisaged in the new Strategic Concept of the Atlantic Alliance (NATO).
During the aforementioned Madrid summit, it was agreed to expand to eight Multinational Battle Groups (MN BG) deployed on the Eastern Flank, as well as their subsequent capacity to expand to the level of Multinational Brigade (MN BDE).
To date, the Spanish contribution of forces to these multinational units has materialised in the MN BGs of Latvia and Slovakia, to which now joins the contribution of a tactical subgroup to the MN BG of Romania.