RG-31 transport vehicles, together with Lynx and VAMTACs, facilitated the mobility of the paratroopers unit.
“These exercises have been closely
linked to the mechanized units,
which is why it was a great novelty”,
says Lieutenant Colonel González
Amezcua, “to project, for the first
time, a wheeled motorized unit based
on Mine-Resistant Ambush-Protected
(MRAP) vehicles”, such as the Lynx,
RG-31 and VAMTAC.
The presence of the BRIPAC in
the Baltic ratifies Spain’s commitment
to the security of the region, which
has materialized since 2017 with the
deployment of 350 service members in
Latvia as part of NATO’s Operation
Enhanced Forward Presence.
DEPLOYMENT AND WITHDRAWAL
The deployment of the Spanish
contingent to Pabrade training area
in Lithuania and its subsequent
withdrawal took place within the
framework of exercise Brilliant Jump
20, under the responsibility of the
Operational Logistics Force (OLF).
On 22 October, the motorized road
movement of all the vehicles and
equipment began, distributed in four
march units organised by the BRIPAC
and the AALOG 11 (Logistic Support
Group) and reinforced by the 1st
Transportation Group and the 21st
Signal Regiment, all of which headed
toward the Port of Santander, after
having spent the night at Araca base
(Vitoria), where an intermediate
transit point was established towards
that port.
There, OLF personnel were
involved in loading the Dutch Ro-Ro
Passenger Gute ship, which arrived at
the Lithuanian port of Klaipeda at the
Ejército de Tierra
end of October with 62 vehicles and 19
containers of materiel. The bulk of the
personnel of the battlegroup deployed
and withdrew by air via Adolfo Suárez-
Madrid Barajas airport.
The Operational Logistics Force
established a Movement Control unit
in its Logistics Operations Support
Centre to telematically monitor
the projection of materiel from the
national territory until its arrival
in Lithuania, and also during its
withdrawal. The tool used by OLF
personnel to monitor in real time
when movements were executed was
the LOGFAS (NATO’s Logistics
Functional Service), associated with
the Spanish Armed Forces Tracking
and Tracing Team (ESYL).
For its part, the signal unit of the
21st Signal Regiment deployed a TLB-
50 IP satellite system, which enabled
coverage to be provided during
exercises Brilliant Jump and Iron Wolf,
ensuring smooth implementation of
command decisions.
José Luis Expósito
The OLF led and
coordinated the
deployment and
withdrawal of
the force
April 2021 Revista Española de Defensa 17