site.btaParticipants In "Pirin Sentinel - 23" Drill to Demonstrate Achieved Capabilities

The participants in the tactical combat shooting drill “Pirin Sentinel 23” will demonstrate the achieved capabilities on Thursday, June 1, at the "Koren" training ground, the Ministry of Defence said on Wednesday. The drill will be overseen by Chief of Defence Admiral Emil Eftimov. The servicemen will demonstrate the conduct of offensive combat operations by a multinational battalion group as a reserve of the mechanized brigade. After the dynamic display is completed, a static one will be held, at which samples of equipment participating in the exercise will be shown.

The battalion tactical drill "Pirin Sentinel 23" is being held from 17 May to 2 June at the Koren Training Area. The theme of the exercise is "Participation of a mechanized battalion in a counter-attack to restore the integrity of the mechanized brigade's defence". More than 400 servicemen from Bulgaria, Greece and Italy are participating. 

The Bulgarian Armed forces are represented by the headquarters of the 3rd Brigade Command - Blagoevgrad, the headquarters and formations of the 3rd Mechanized Battalion (supplemented by personnel from the headquarters and formations of the 10th Mechanized Battalion), a tank company from the 61st Tank Battalion from the Specialist Training Centre - Sliven, a jet battery from the 4th Artillery Regiment, the Bezmer Air Base and the National Military Training Center “Charalitsa”. A tank platoon from Italy, a tank platoon and two AH 64 "APACHE" helicopters from Greece will participate.

The objectives of "Pirin Sentinel 23" are to train the participating commanders and formations in planning and conducting defensive and offensive combat operations in a coalition format, to increase interoperability between the participants from different countries and to test the applicability of the developed standard operating procedures and working models.

The officer planning the exercise is the Commander of the Land Forces Major General Deyan Deshkov, the officer conducting the exercise is the Commander of the 3rd Brigade Command Colonel Mitko Baltov and the Director - the Deputy Commander of the 3rd Brigade Command Colonel Georgi Kalchev.

"Pirin Sentinel 23" is part of the second phase of the "Sentinel 23" drill - "Immediate response 23".