News item | 17-04-2025 | 17:11
With 1,800 vehicles, 200 drones and 4,500 soldiers from 3 countries at lightning speed to the eastern border for a combat operation. The army trained this during Bastion Lion in recent weeks. The imaginary eastern border was in Germany. The exercise was a realistic preparation for a large -scale conflict and ends today.
The developments in warfare are going very fast. The war in Ukraine shows that daily. Think of the technology of drones and counterdrones. This reality requires smarter fighting and the opponent always stay a step forward.
Fire support
The war shows how difficult and important it is to bring together all military capacities at the right time and place. That is exactly what happened during Bastion Lion. Think of fire support, air defense, medical care, logistics and genius. Moreover, there were armored fronts on the training ground in the German Guz Altmark.
Experiment in practice
Bastion Lion offered an environment to fully experiment in practice. For example, soldiers did not only learn to fight with and against drones. They have also tested improvements in commanding and in the field of logistics.
Enemy
They also trained how the enemy is best to mislead. Special innovation teams helped the units. They quickly searched for solutions for operational problems. The units immediately put them into practice.
During the ‘large -scale conflict’, not only the military readiness was central. It was also about the mindset of soldiers.
Brigadiereraal Gert-Jan Kooij of 13 Light Brigade: “Modern warfare requires a different way of thinking and acting. It’s about fighting, working as a team and giving space to everyone’s role. We are ready, but you’re never ready. We always have to get better.”