Mijo Kresic, Deputy Minister of Defense of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), Deputy Chief of the Joint Staff of the Armed Forces (AF) of BiH, Major General Ivica Jerkic, and Commander of the NATO Staff Sarajevo, Brigadier General Eric Folkestad yesterday visited the combat training center”Manjaca” to monitor the assessment of SEL-2 Battalion Group of Light Infantry ( INF-L-BNG).
As it was announced from the Ministry of Defense of BiH, during the visit of the combat center “Manjaca”, a briefing was held by the director of the exercise, Brigadier Slaven Blavicki, during which the guests were introduced to the dynamics of the SEL-2 assessment.
The guests were addressed by the head of the NATO monitoring team, Colonel Tore Bade, who expressed his satisfaction with the evaluation process so far and emphasized that the Light Infantry Battalion Group is on a good way to successfully complete the SEL-2 assessment.
Mijo Kresic stressed that he was impressed by the readiness and commitment of all members of the AF of BiH who were involved in the activities carried out at the “Manjaca” center.
“This is an activity that has been carried out for the third year and next year we expect a fully prepared, trained unit of light infantry battalion levels in the final phase, which will be ready to implement tasks under NATO-led peace support missions. This is one of the most demanding activities carried out by the AF of BiH, ” emphasized Kresic.
During the visit, the guests had the opportunity to get acquainted with the activities and tasks of the units from the structure of the Battalion Group of Light Infantry.
“The goal of this program is the transition of the AF of BiH and we are remembering lessons learned in this exercise so that other units of the BiH AF, starting from the detachment, platoon, troop, and battalion, are equally standardized and capable of conducting complex operations such as NATO-led operations,” told Ivica Jerkic.
The Commander of the NATO Headquarters Sarajevo, Brigadier General Eric Folkestad, congratulated on the successful implementation of this very demanding event and also added that next year is the final phase of assessment and that the units have proven capable so far, so the citizens of BiH can be proud of their AF of BiH.
Activities within the NATO SEL-2 Operational Capabilities Concept (OCC E&F) assessment began on September 6th and will end today. Members of INF-L-BNG through SEL-2 assessment are checked and evaluated by assessors from the AF of BiH with the monitoring of assessors from partner countries in order to check the degree of readiness and interoperability of INF-L-BNG in performing tasks. Assessment SEL-2 INF-L-BNG is the third of four levels in the assessment system of declared units, which must be passed in order to be certified, as soon as it is confirmed that it is fully trained, interoperable, and ready to engage in peace support operations, BHRT writes.
E.Dz.
