The troops participating in the 'Jackal Stone 2012' exercise were visited by the President of Croatia, Mr. Ivo Josipovic, during the Distinguished Visitors` Day, on Monday, 17 September, in the Josip Jovic barracks in Udbina.

The commander of the ROU SOTG - Special Operations Task Group presented for the Croatian president and the distinguished visitors typical training special operations exercises such as common parachute jumps of the Croatian and Romanian troops from Mi-17 aircraft of the Slovak Air Forces, infiltrations with the help of Croat helicopters Mi-171 Sh, military assistance for the host nation carried out by Croat, American and Romanian troops.

There is a still exhibition presenting weapons, communications equipment, materials and combat vehicles that equip the Air Forces of the USA, Croatia, Lithuania, Norway and Romania, as well as a completely equipped Romanian soldier for this type of missions.

The Romanian stand presented the Romanian assault rifle Heckler and Koch (H&K) G36 KV cal. 5.56mm, M 240B machine gun, cal. 7.62mm, shotgun M500 Mossberg cal. 12mm, pistol Glock-17 cal. 9mm, automatic pistol H&K, UMP cal. 9mm, SNIPER systems cal. 7.62mm, SIG SAUER model SSG 3000 and Brugger&Thomet, APR, and SNIPER system M82 Barrett cal. 12.7mm.

One of the capabilities presented was the use and integration of the unmanned aircraft (UAV), type Skylark of the Croatian military that sent real time images to the ROU SOTG Command.

According to the exercise specifications, Romania is one of the three nations along with the USA and Norway that lead multinational force structures, of joint special operations group level having subordinated special operations detachments from the Czech republic, the USA, Croatia and Romania. After visiting the Joint Operations center, the Croatian president thanked for the presentation and accepted the invitation to sign in the Book of Honor of the Romanian unit.

'I am very pleased with the training level that was presented here today. Congratulation to all the participants!' the Croatian president wrote in the Book of Honor.

The Croatian Defence Minister, Ante Kotromanovic, the chief of Croatian General Staff, Colonel General Drago Lovric and the commander of the US Joint Special Operations Command Europe (SOCEUR) Major General Michael S. Repass, military observers, local officials and journalists participated in the event.

The Romanian Ambassador to Zagreb, Mr. Cosmin-George Dinescu and the Romanian defence attache to Budapest, covering Croatia as well, Colonel Iuliu Lucaci, also participated in the activities.

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The exercise, organized by SOCEUR, takes place from 13 to 24 September in the territory, air space and territorial waters of the Republic of Croatia, in the area of Split, Zadar, Udbina and Delnice localities.

The 55 Romanian special operations troops are part of all the structures of the exercise, based in two locations: Zemunik air base of Zadar (the command and staff structure) and Josip Jovic barracks of Udbina (operational personnel).

This fifth edition of the exercise is attended by some 2,000 special operations troops of 11 countries (Czech Republic, Croatia, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and the United States), with seven nations as observers (Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Great Britain and Hungary).

'Jackal Stone 2012' is the most important international exercise of the Special Operations Forces that has as main goals increasing cooperation and interoperability among participating troops, strengthening regional security and stability, common training, experience exchanges and harmonization of doctrines, techniques, tactics and procedures used by the special operations forces.

The training missions conducted during the exercise consist in free fall of Romanian, Croatian, and US troops, countering improvised explosive devices, first aid measures, convoy patrol and escort missions, other specific missions.

From the first Jackal Stone exercise in 2008, Romania participated with Special Operations Forces in all the editions both as host nation (in 2008 and 2011), and participant nation (in 2009 and 2010).

MoND Press Office