Response Force
IN THE BALTIC The Paratroopers Brigade deploys part of its troops
assigned to VJTF 2020 to Lithuania to participate in
NATO’s exercises Brilliant Jump and Iron Wolf
BRILLIANT Jump, a stra-
tegic projection exercise,
and Iron Wolf, a war-
fighting exercise, conducted
consecutively and comple-
mentarily, have helped the Atlantic
Alliance assess the readiness level
of NATO’s Very High Readiness
Joint Task Force (VJTF) 2020 to
which Spain is contributing this
year with a battlegroup made up of
personnel from the 2nd Roger de Lauria
Battalion of Paratroopers of the 6th
Paratroopers Brigade (BRIPAC)
Almogávares. The first exercise at the
end of October, tested the readiness
level of the units that make up the
spearhead of NATO’s Response Force
(NRF), namely, their ability to deploy
rapidly from home stations to, on this
occasion, the Pabrade training area
in Lithuania, and their subsequent
withdrawal. Iron Wolf was conducted
there, close to the border with
Belarus, and has tested the integration
and interoperability capabilities of
the VJTF’s multinational forces.
The exercise involved 2,500 troops
from Belgium, the Czech Republic,
France, Germany, Iceland, Lithuania,
Luxembourg, Norway, Poland, Spain,
the Netherlands and the United
Kingdom, under the leadership of the
NATO Joint Force Headquarters in
Brunssum (the Netherlands), which
holds the command of the NRF and its
VJTF in 2020.
Its land component is led by the
Polish Army’s 21st Mechanized
12 Revista Española de Defensa April 2021
Ejército de Tierra