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Multinational battlegroup in Bulgaria completes its biggest exercise yet. NATO’s new multinational battlegroup in Bulgaria geared up during Platinum Lion 22, its biggest exercise yet. NATO’s multinational battlegroup in Bulgaria completed Exercise Platinum Lion 22, passing an important milestone as it moves towards achieving full operational capability. The battlegroup currently consists of the Bulgarian Army’s 42nd Mechanised Battalion and a mechanised infantry company from the US Army’s 3rd Armoured Brigade Combat Team. Soldiers from the British Army’s Royal Irish Regiment worked alongside the battlegroup for Platinum Lion 22, learning how to manoeuvre and communicate with their NATO Allies as they repelled a simulated attack. The battlegroup in Bulgaria was created following a decision by the North Atlantic Council to reinforce the eastern part of the Alliance, following Russia’s brutal and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine. To help establish the battlegroup, the US Army’s 4th Security Force Assistance Brigade has spent time mentoring the 42nd Mechanised Battalion at Novo Selo, helping them learn how to operate in a multinational context. The Italian Army will assume leadership of the battlegroup this fall and lead the way for other nations to participate including Bulgaria and the United States. Footage includes shots of Bulgarian, UK and US troops during the exercise, as well as interviews with Bulgarian and US officers. It is important for NATO to have a battlegroup in Bulgaria, because Bulgaria is a member of NATO, actively participates in NATO activities, and because of the country's location on NATO's eastern flank, I think that is where one of the battlegroups of NATO should be located. As a level of increasing security for Bulgaria and for the region as a whole, the first thing is that by forming and increasing this defence potential of the southeastern flank of NATO, the defence potential of Bulgaria is also increased. At this moment, Bulgaria and the United States of America are participating, the other possible participants are in the process of being joined and are discussing. So we’re currently located at Novo Selo Training Area here in Bulgaria. We’re here training the multinational battlegroup, conducting exercise Platinum Lion. This is the biggest exercise the battlegroup has conducted to date. Really, it’s a test to see if all the training we’ve done leading up to this event have ensured that we can operate as a team that operates very efficiently and can communicate across the formation in order for Colonel Kehayov, the battlegroup commander, to conduct mission command, and command and control over his formation. So the battlegroup currently consists of a Bulgarian mechanised infantry battalion with a US mechanised infantry company, a Bradley company that’s attached to it. We’ve currently been conducting a series of training exercises here at Novo Selo Training Area in Bulgaria, with Platinum Lion being the biggest exercise so far, really a battalion-level operation. Here in the near-term, the Italian Army will take over as the framework nation of the battlegroup, which means they’ll provide the preponderance of the forces, and we’ll have six additional nations participate in the battlegroup here in Bulgaria.
