In Estonia, the Hedgehog 2022 (Siil 2022) military drills have been launched on Monday, May 16, with around 15 000 military personnel from the Estonian Defence Forces, as well as from NATO allied and partner countries, Estonian public broadcaster ERR reports.
The military training will continue until June 3, and the training tasks will take place throughout almost all of the territory of Estonia. The largest manoeuvres of the units are planned take place in southern Estonia, combat shooting exercises at the Central Training Area of the Defence Forces as well as in Saaremaa.
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In parallel to Hedgehog 2022, several other exercises are being held in Estonia and its neighbours. Latvia is holding its the exercise Namejs, within the framework of which, among other things, cross-border cooperation and command procedures with the Estonian Defense Forces will be trained.
The key publicly stated aim of Hedgehog 2022 is to test the combat readiness of the Estonian Defence Forces and the ability to respond to threat scenarios in an international military framework, ERR reports.