Estonians in Swedish training for dire disorder

Photo: Simmo Saar/Eesti kaitsevägi

Thus says the training scenario: in South-East Sweden, a country called Bogaland has been declared. In Bogaland – no European values....

The 50 Estonian currently training in forests of Sweden are part and parcel of the total of 2,400 soldiers who, starting January, need to stand ready – at an EU decision – to head off to any crisis area in ten days across the very Equator.

This Thursday, Uppsala military airport saw a transport aircraft C-130 Hercules take off towards Southern Sweden with an ambulance vehicle and half a tonne of bottled drinking water on board. A bystander may have mused this to make as much sense as delivering mail by limousine. Ambulances abound in Southern Sweden... and it’s been raining for five days.

Two medical staff, helmets on, didn’t think it funny. For the second day running, the land underneath is no longer Swedish welfare society, but a Bogaland groaning under humanitarian catastrophe – policemen are kidnapped, locals butchered, roadblocks erected.

Government «off»

The training scenario says this is day 60 of the crisis. At the destination of the flight, a field base at 450 kilometres, a colleague has been life-threateningly shot.

This is what a day may look like, for medical staff, in some conflict are over in Africa, say, with no roads leading to the base – or they are too dangerous to drive.

«We are in a situation as close to a humanitarian mission as possible,» said deputy head to Nordic Battlegroup, the Irish colonel Howard Berney right at the centre of the crisis at Hagshult airbase.

«The government is turned dysfunctional, the locals are being bothered by rebels. Innocent civilians are in constant danger. This kind of a scenario may be linked to lots of locations in the world at the moment.»

And that’s what they actually have to do – with no questions asked, the unit needs to be ready for a mission to whatever country within a 6,000 km radius from Brussels. According to Col. Berney, it is therefore vital for the soldiers to learn to faultlessly cooperate during these days here.  

As an example of that, the Lithuanian units on the ground need to be able to receive and interpret live images sent from Swedish fighters. Teams of Finnish evacuation helicopters are treating living pigs and not mannequins. Civilian-military cooperation teams, however, are having to quiet down actors embodying locals eager to get the soldiers off of their lands.

All in all, Col. Berney is commanding 2,400 troops from Scandinavia, Baltics and Ireland. Like all of the 18 battle groups, the Nordic one is a strike team by which the EU is able to restrain a humanitarian crisis erupting in some near region.

A battle group is in ten-day-readiness for half a year at a time. From January till end of June, it’s the Swedish-led Nordic Battlegroup’s turn. For that, Estonia has set forth 50 servicemen and Defence League members including military police, military geographers, landscape scouts, a movement control team, and a civilian-military cooperation team.

According to Major Andris Sprivul in command of the Estonian contingent the input was decided in summer of 2013 already. Though Estonia has participated in the Nordic Battlegroup twice before, this time they sent teams with relatively rare skills.

«Estonia has been guided by the principle that no unit is formed just for the short term need of some mission. These are capabilities that are actually in the ten year development plan of the Defence Forces,» explained Maj. Sprivul.

Accordingly, for Estonia the battlegroup has two underlying ideas: maintaining a strong connection with defence forces in neighbouring countries, and train specialists that we need – ones with international experience.

Some of the 50 were appointed, others competed for a role this February. Since then, they have undergone training in native Estonia. Should the EU opt to send the battlegroup to a humanitarian mission during the upcoming six months, they would have to lay aside everyday work and head for the mission.

Lion’s share are men who do a similar job in Estonia. But there are the exceptions like Karl Märka, Defence League member and a student at Tallinn University of Technology, now one of the seven members of the civilian-military cooperation team and in Sweden as part of reserve training session.

Like the others, he has said his «yes» so in case of a mission declared there’d be a pause in his job and studies.

The probability is ever so tiny as since their creation in 2007, the EU has never once used the battlegroups. Back then, the units were first and foremost formed with African humanitarian crises in mind.

Hefty costs

Indeed, missions were considered with crisis in Congo (2008), South-Sudan (2010), Libya (2011) and Mali (2012), but in all cases consensus proved elusive.

In the December of 2013, many analysts deemed the battlegroup to have been the best crisis containment option for Central African Republic, but as the UK categorically opposed, France never filed the application. Instead of that, the French asked allies for help bilaterally. As we remember, Estonia did send 50 troops to a military operation in CAR, for four months.

Therefore, analysts are asking if it makes sense to keep training the idle battlegroups year after year. The costs aren’t small: in 2008 alone, Sweden spent about €150m to keep the Nordic Battlegroup in readiness for six months.

The motivation in Sweden, currently involved with 1,900 troops, seems not to be waning. Probably, as a non-NATO state, Sweden needs a way to still do active military cooperation with near neighbours.

According to Col. Berney, at least for the small countries the battlegroups have been justified. «This has been a remarkable means to develop one’s specific capabilities,» said the Irishman. A political decision can never be taken light-handedly as the decision-makers need to be sure the battlegroup would be able to stabilise the situation during the four months granted. Otherwise, they risk losing face.

According to Maj. Sprivul, the battlegroups also serve as EU military reserve and their employment in Europe can never be excluded.   

The trip to Sweden by reporter was financed by Defence Forces.