From 19 to 30 September 2022, around 4,200 troops from 17 Allies trained in Latvia to enhance their ability to operate together as part of multinational exercise Silver Arrow 2022. Silver Arrow is a long-planned, regular annual exercise. NATO’s multinational battlegroup in Latvia took part in the exercise as part of Latvia’s Mechanised Infantry Brigade. During this two-week long exercise, Silver Arrow brought 17 NATO allied armed forces units with over 4000 military personnel and 1000 vehicles together to develop relationships and capitalize allied and partner nation capabilities.
US High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) M142 also deployed to demonstrate their ability to deploy rapidly in the defence of the Alliance. Silver Arrow being conducted in Europe demonstrates a strong U.S. commitment to the collective security of NATO and dedication to enduring stability in the region.
“This live-fire exercise was a great testament to the commitment of the unity of NATO. The United States’ presence here and our commitment to NATO, Latvia security and Baltic security is an impressive show of force,” said U.S. Ambassador to Latvia, John Carwile.
“The multinational NATO Exercise Silver Arrow is a training event every fall that allows the alliance to work through increasing our combat readiness as well as the interoperability between all the nations within our great alliance. This is another great training event here in Latvia with the Latvian Mechanized Brigade and the NATO Enhanced Forward Presence Battle Group (eFP BG),” said Army Col. Richard J. Ikena Jr., 1st Infantry Division Artillery commander.
The US Army regularly deploys the system to the Baltics to train alongside NATO Allies. Should a crisis occur, US Special Operations Command Europe (US SOCEUR) will be able to rush HIMARS launchers nearly anywhere in Europe on short notice. The systems were flown to R?ga and Liep?ja airfields with C-130 aircraft. During the live-fire exercise, they were used to shoot rockets on a target in the Baltic Sea waters of Latvia’s exclusive economic zone. The exercise involved Albania, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States.
