Can an exercise cause a war?
41 FAB HIMARS deployed in Romania. (Photo: DVIDS Capt Kevyn Kaler)
As Russia concentrates its forces on its border with Ukraine, NATO and Russia continue to blame each other for the current friction, much of it attributed by Moscow to NATO exercises in Ukraine.
On 10 April, the USAF 352nd Special Operations Wing (SOW) undertook a Rapid Aerial Insertion (HIRAIN) operation to deploy High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) to Romania.
According to 352 SOW, this exercise demonstrated the ability of US European Command ‘to quickly employ long-range precision fires in a time and place of their choosing to support NATO allies and partners’.
‘This is the second time in less than six months the 41st Field Artillery Brigade (41 FAB) has been able to practise our HIMARS rapid infiltration mission along the Black Sea along with our joint partners in Special Operation Command Europe,’
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