Live-flying NATO exercise begins over North West Europe
Exercise BRILLIANT ARROW 2006, an annual live-flying NATO exercise, will take place over North West Europe from 27 March to 7 April 2006, with live-flying operations during the periods 27 – 31 March and 3 – 5 April 2006.
Specific exercise areas will be located in the North Sea, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. Participating nations will mainly fly from bases in Belgium, Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands. The exercise will be conducted by Allied Air Component Command Headquarters Ramstein through its Air Operations Centres.
BRILLIANT ARROW 2006 will involve air forces from thirteen member nations: Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States of America.
The exercise is designed to provide challenging and realistic training opportunities and team building for all participating units in a Crisis Response Operation scenario, with emphasis on NATO Response Force air operations. It will also provide an opportunity to verify the interoperability, mission execution and reporting capabilities of the Air Components of NATO’s Response Forces (NRF 7 and 8) that will be on standby from July 2006 to July 2007.
This exercise is related to NATO exercise BRILLIANT MARINER 2006, taking place from 24 March to 6 April 20062006 in the German Bight, North Sea, Skagerak, Kattegat and adjacent territorial waters. It is conducted by the Allied Maritime Component Command Northwood, the United Kingdom. Both exercises are decisive steps on the road towards a NATO Response Force that has full operational capability.