Army Plans Exercise to Raise NATO Readiness

By , 26 Jun 2018, 12:06 PM News
Could do better Could do better Wikimedia: 7th Army Joint Multinational Training Command

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STA, 26 June 2018 - The Slovenian army will hold an exercise at the Poček grounds near Postojna this week in what will be an attempt to improve its NATO CREVAL readiness assessment. In February, the country's battalion battle unit failed the combat readiness evaluation, which cost the chief of the general staff his job. 

The poor performance in February made headlines and raised a lot of dust among politicians.

Among other things, President and Supreme Commander of Armed Forces Borut Pahor and Prime Minister Miro Cerar demanded a report from Defence Minister Andreja Katič and it even seemed like her job was on the line.

But while Katič kept her job, Chief of the General Staff Andrej Osterman was dismissed and his deputy Maj Gen Alan Geder was appointed in his place.

Katič later admitted that Osterman should have been dismissed earlier, adding that he had approved the exercise although the new that the battle group was ill-prepared.

The incident brought to the forefront the problems faced by the military, including poor pay, understaffing and outdated equipment.

This was also highlighted by Geder after he took over. "We need 1,238 more people to operate in a normal manner," he said, adding that 379 more people had left the force than joined it over the course of the past three years.

Since the February exercise, the battalion battle group has been filled with additional staff.

The army also said on its website that there would be a higher number of military vehicles on the roads and military aircraft in the air between Tuesday and Saturday.

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