The military drill will continue until June 6 on several locations around Slovenia, i.e. at the main SAF training range at Poček, in the surroundings of Gotenica near Kočevje, in the surroundings of Sevnica, and in the surroundings of Porezen near Soriška planina.
The purpose of this year's Adriatic Strike 2014 International Military Drill, which is being organized in Slovenia for the third consecutive year, is training of Joint Terminal Attack Controllers of the Slovenian Armed Forces, with the cooperation of military aviation and artillery. At the exercise there will be 400 participants, one half of those from the twelve allied countries. The training procedures of JTAC will be supported by 23 aircrafts and 13 unmanned aerial vehicles.
The Slovenian Armed Forces will participate with four Pilatus aircrafts PC-9M (nicknamed Hudournik – "Swift"), two helicopters - Bell 206 and Bell 412, and a Cougar AS532AL, the Austrian military aviation will contribute three Pilatus PC-7 aircrafts and three helicopters Bell OH-58 Kiowa, the Checks will participate with two Aero L-159 aircrafts, the Hungarians with a SAAB JAS 39 Gripen, and the USA forces stationed in Europe will join the military drill with two F 16 aircrafts, three helicopters Apache AH-64, and unmanned aerial systems Shadow, Puma and Raven.
The Slovenian Armed forces aircrafts Pilatus PC-9M will fly over the training areas in predefined time intervals, at low altitude, and the allies' aircraft will simulate the air support at the altitudes between 2,500 and 6,000 metres. The drill will be led by the 15th wing of the military aviation in cooperation with the Joint Operational Centre of the Slovenian Armed Forces, and with the support of the 1st brigade, 72nd brigade, Logistic brigade, 430th Naval Division, Military Police, Special Operations Unit, and Unit for Communication and Information Systems.
200 allied soldiers will join the drill
Along with the members of the Slovenian Armed Forces at the drill will participate also members of Austrian, Belgian, Check, French, Croatian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Hungarian, Macedonian, Montenegro, Dutch, and American armed forces. The drill will be monitored by the observers from Egypt, Italy, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia.
The training of the Joint Terminal Attack Controllers will take place at four locations in Slovenia. At the main SAF training range in Postojna mortars and Pilatus aircrafts of the Slovenian Armed Forces will be directed at land targets, while in the surroundings of Gotenica near Kočevje, in the surroundings of Sevnica and in the surroundings of Porezen near Soriška planina the aircrafts will just simulate air support.
In order to assure safety of the drill and safe air traffic without any interruptions, temporary air space closures above the regions of the drill are planned. Mostly the training will take place during the daylight hours, and all the activities at the working points will be concluded by 11 pm.
