ĀDAŽI, Latvia – On 30 September, Allies from across NATO concluded exercise Silver Arrow. During the two-week event held in Camp Ādaži, around 4,200 soldiers from 17 NATO member states demonstrated readiness and interoperability in a realistic, multinational training environment.

Silver Arrow is a recurring Latvian Army-led exercise. Alongside other training objectives, it serves to certify NATO’s enhanced Forward Presence (eFP) Battlegroup Latvia, which is led by the Canadian Army and involves 10 other contributing nations. The Battlegroup is integrated into the Latvian Mechanised Brigde 

The exercise was a display of cooperation between the participating Allies. It offered them an opportunity to hone their skills to work together as a coalition across multiple domains, e.g. through Air-Land Integration activities. 

For the purpose of Silver Arrow 2022, the U.S. Armed Forces dispatched two High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) M142 to demonstrate their ability to deploy rapidly in the defence of the Alliance. The U.S. Army regularly deploys the system to the Baltics to train alongside NATO Allies. Should a crisis occur, the U.S. Special Operations Command Europe will be able to rush HIMARS launchers nearly anywhere in Europe on short notice.

This year, Silver Arrow involved Albania, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States. 

From 19 to 30 September 2022, around 4,200 troops from 17 Allies trained in Latvia to enhance their ability to operate together as part of multinational exercise Silver Arrow 2022 / Photos by NATO eFP Battlegroup Latvia and the Latvian Army