Military mobility
The exercise is designed to demonstrate that NATO allies are ready to work together to reinforce the eastern flank — and to propagate lessons from the war in Ukraine.
In responding to Russian aggression, speed will be essential. In one of the French army’s largest deployments, Paris scrambled troops and military equipment to Romania within NATO’s 10-day deadline. Under NATO requirements, France must be able to deploy a war-ready division on the eastern flank in 30 days by 2027.
“For the first time, we decided to use a ship. It took us two days to reach Greece, then two to three more days to cross Bulgaria,” said Gen. Maxime Do Tran, the commander of the French armored brigade that participated in the exercise. Other troops made the journey on five planes, 11 trains and about 15 convoys.
While moving across air, land and sea was relatively seamless, “the train transportation was a bit more difficult because in peacetime, we were not prioritized to cross the border,” Do Tran said. Next week, the European Commission is expected to unveil a proposal to ease movement of military personnel and weaponry.
Soldiers on site deployed equipment from across the alliance: German Eurofighters, Romanian F-16s, High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems rocket launchers, Caesar self-propelled howitzers, and Mistral air defense systems.
And drones. Lots of drones. “Dacian Fall is a very good platform for each nation to make experiments and test new equipment,” said Maj. Gen. Toma. For the first time in a large-scale drill, Romanian military officers tested Turkish-made Bayraktar TB2 drones. Other unmanned aerial vehicles included drones providing targeting information for troops on the ground, as well as suicide drones and FPV models widely used in Ukraine.