11 June 2004

Exercise Collective Effort News 11 June 2004 - SHAPE Czech Republic to host its first ever NATO-led exercise Key links Exercise Collective Effort Joint Headquarters Centre Heidelberg, Germany An exercise focusing on ways of improving the interoperability of NATO logistics systems and the standardisation of procedures to support NATO operations is taking place in the Czech Republic, 11-18 June. This is the first time that the Czech Republic is hosting a NATO-led exercise. It is taking place in the south of the country, in and around Cesky Krumlov. Eight NATO member countries are participating and some of the new NATO countries – Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Slovakia – have been invited as observers to see how they need to adapt their procedures to NATO’s overall logistics force structure. Exercise Collective Effort revolves around an out-of-area NATO-led crisis response operation scenario and includes training in assistance to civil planning and the handover of operations to civil authorities. It is a biennial exercise that involves over 500 soldiers and is being led by NATO’s Joint Headquarters Centre, Heidelberg, Germany.