Amber Bridge over Elblag River

By Lt. Col. Ryan Donald, HQ Multinational Division North EastFebruary 23, 2021

Soldiers from NATO's Multinational Division North East participated in Exercise Amber Bridge Feb. 15 – 19 in Elblag, Poland to improve the headquarters skills in planning military operations.
1 / 2 Show Caption + Hide Caption – Soldiers from NATO's Multinational Division North East participated in Exercise Amber Bridge Feb. 15 – 19 in Elblag, Poland to improve the headquarters skills in planning military operations. (Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL
A Canadian Army Soldier assigned to NATO's Multinational Division North East participated in Exercise Amber Bridge Feb. 15 – 19 in Elblag, Poland to improve the headquarters skills in planning military operations.
2 / 2 Show Caption + Hide Caption – A Canadian Army Soldier assigned to NATO's Multinational Division North East participated in Exercise Amber Bridge Feb. 15 – 19 in Elblag, Poland to improve the headquarters skills in planning military operations. (Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL

ELBLAG, Poland -- Soldiers from Headquarters Multinational Division North East took part in Exercise Amber Bridge, Battle Staff Training here to improve headquarters skills in planning military operations.

This Battle Staff Training is an important element for the headquarters to improve upon its standard operating procedures and increased shared knowledge among the staff.

“This year we plan to participate in various exercises. To ensure we are successful we need to make sure the new soldiers to the headquarters as well as those that have been in for a while have the same baseline knowledge of how we operate as a team,” said Polish Army MGEN Krzysztof Motacki, Commander, Multinational Division North East (MND-NE).

Exercise Amber Bridge was designed to increase the staff’s knowledge of the division’s role in the reception, staging and onward movement, and integration of forces process. It also allowed the headquarters to prepare for its participation in exercise Griffin Lighting 21 in support of Multinational Corps Northeast (MNC-NE).

As the regional land component command, Exercise Griffin Lighting 21 is designed to train the MNC-NE in planning and conducting its deterrence mission in the Baltic Sea region.

The exercises the headquarters participates in is to ensure the division can seamlessly operate within the NATO chain of command and with our two affiliated brigades, Lithuania’s Iron Wolf Brigade and Poland’s 15th Mechanized Brigade as well as the two enhanced Forward Presence Battlegroups in Lithuania and Poland respectively.

“Our goal as a division is for our headquarters, affiliated brigades and eFP battlegroups to train together, because you cannot surge trust by training separately. You need to build trust through realistic training so we can fight together as one division, as one team” Motacki concluded.

The main command post and tactical command post was organized by the MND-NE Command Support Regiment.