Approximately 15,000 soldiers, out of which 10,000 Romanians and 5,000 from 17 allied and partner nations will participate, starting Tuesday, 4th May, until half of June, in 16 Firing Ranges and other Romanian military facilities in the most complex training activity since the burst of the COVID-19 pandemics, the series of exercises DACIA 21 LIVEX being coordinated by the Joint Forces Command, Defence Staff.

DACIA 21 LIVEX integrate training sequels of the Romanian, allied and partner states within NATO context and as part of the Romanian-American Strategic Partnership, for the execution of a defensive operation, in scenarios which involve high-intensity combat actions. DACIA 21 LIVEX exercises have the goal to consolidate the national and allied defence and deterrence posture and confirm the Romanian Armed Forces capacity to engage its capabilities in defensive operations as well as the permanent availability of the Alliance structures and the US strategic partner in rapidly deploying to our country credible forces in order to build defence against any aggressor. Also, during the exercises, the host nation support given by our country to the troops and combat equipment will be verified.

The training activities scheduled consist in displacement and tactical exercises with or without combat firings, aviation bombs shooting, parachuting, water course flows, encrypted communications, coordination of transit through the air, naval and ground border crossing points as well as medical activities. At the same time, the DACIA 21 LIVEX series of exercises ensure the multinational framework required to rehearse the command integration capacity at operative level by the Joint Forces Command.

The series of exercises represent a peak of the professional training which consisted in planning and organization stages initiated a year ago before the operational execution ones currently run. The exercises are preceded by the displacement of the troops (in May) towards the training areas, followed by the return of the troops, in June. Several displacements of troops and equipment are planned to take place on road, naval and air routes within the country.

The health status of the troops is the priority of the Romanian Armed Forces and the prevention measures of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, both within and outside the military system, were key elements which had been considered during the planning process of the exercises. Thus, the soldiers will wear sanitary masks, maintain physical distance and conduct missions on rotational cycles. At the same time, the participating structures have planned courses of actions and quarantine locations for the potential appearance of coronavirus cases among the participating personnel .

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The states participating with troops and equipment in the DACIA 21 LIVEX series of exercises are Albania, Bulgaria, France, Germany, Italy, Latvia, Great Britain, Moldova, Montenegro, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, USA, Turkey and Hungary.

The main training areas where the series of exercises will be conducted will be the Joint National Training Center from Cincu, Brasov County, The Secondary Combat Training Centers from Smardan, Galati County and Babadag, Tulcea County, Capu Midia Ground-to-Air Firing Range from Constanta County and The Aeronautical Personnel's Training and Development Air Base from Boboc, Buzau Couty. At the same time, training events of DACIA 21 LIVEX will be conducted within the training facilities from Targu Mures, Bogata, Bradet, Grohotis, Gropeni and Frecatei.

The Press Office