The great military exercise Falcon Spring Has really started today. American Black Hawk and Chinook Helicopters dropped Dutch soldiers in a field so that they could reclaim the Oudemolen Military Complex in Tynaarlo from “the enemy.”
The scenario is as follows: the enemy has reached the German border. Small special units went to the Netherlands from the east to take strategic places, including Oudemolen. The next 13 infantry battalion from Assen must recover this place and stop the enemy advance.
“Training outside training grounds is much more realistic,” explains deputy commander Mark Bakker. “We are dealing with civilian population here, and the potential objects (places, goals, ed.) Are much more challenging.”
Reservists who are part of 20 infantry battalion secure are the enemy today. For them this is just as much an exercise as for the attacking power. “The fact that we, as event managers, can hardly enter, indicates how they are in this competition.”