Estonian Review
Estonia and its allies will this year carry out six international exercises; of these six will take place in June, the daily Postimees reported.

In May the international mine hunting operation, Open Spirit, will take place, in June there will be the international exercises Saber Strike, BALTOPS and Baltic Host and in the summer, the NATO response forces NRF exercise Steadfast Juncture and the cyberdefense exercise Cyber Coalition in the fall.

Lt. Col. Rain Janno, commander of the defense forces headquarters' operations and training department, said that the organization of three large-scale exercises in June meant that Estonia's logistic and planning capacity had sufficiently developed. He said that the exercises also showed that Estonia had its defense plans and that there was brisk work going on at complementing them.

The joint denominator of the all the exercises is reception of allied forces and cooperation of between different countries' units, armaments, civilian authorities and companies. The exercises will bring to the Baltic countries more than 2000 allies' troops, of these about a thousand to Estonia.

Janno added that Estonia would bear a considerable burden of the organization of the exercises. The leading headquarters of Saber Strike will be located in Estonia and the port operations in Paldiski will be of critical importance for all the Baltic countries; besides, Estonia will be the organizer of the receiving country exercise, Baltic Host.

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