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SZCZECIN, Poland – On December 5-8, more than 100 logisticians from across NATO assembled at Headquarters Multinational Corps Northeast (MNC NE) to rehearse the deployment of NATO’s Very High Readiness Joint Task Force (VJTF) into Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. The rehearsal was conducted in the frame of the so-called Tabletop Exercise (TTX) Griffin Force-II.

The Griffin Force-II participants at Headquarters Multinational Corps Northeast in Szczecin, Poland, December 7, 2022 / Photo by CTP Simon Hofmann

Stability, peace and democracy in NATO’s northeastern region heavily rely on the Alliance’s ability to provide credible deterrence, e.g. through a swift deployment of well-prepared multinational forces, and MNC NE as NATO’s Regional Land Component Command is responsible for receiving incoming VJTF troops in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland. Consequently, Griffin Force-II served to discuss various logistical challenges and to produce solutions to identified needs or opportunities. Using maps and deployment data, this TTX promoted shared understanding of logistical factors in the Baltic Sea region.  

“It is in our own interest to increase the resilience of the deployment plans for the VJTF,” Lieutenant General Jürgen-Joachim von Sandrart, Commander MNC NE, highlighted during the Griffin Force-II opening. 

This, of course, serves a deterrence purpose, but it is equally important to be ready the moment a potential fight starts. An exercise like this is an excellent way to uncover the challenges we must overcome to make that possible.

The VJTF deployment from Spain to Poland as part of exercise Brilliant Jump 16, May 18, 2016 / Photos by MNC NE Public Affairs Office

The participants emphasized that they wanted to be as thorough as possible in order to be prepared for any VJTF-related scenario. Upon the completion of Griffin Force-II, Colonel Andrzej Cholewa, Assistant Chief of Staff J4 MNC NE, concluded: 

The fruitful discussions during the last couple of days have definitely improved and strengthened our deployment plans; I am very proud of the logisticians who have been working hard before as well as during this TTX.