The last part of the French military’s technology park arrived today at the Defence Forces’ Tapa armed forces campus, with Leclerc tanks among the nearly thirty military vehicles.
France is contributing 300 servicemen and various types of combat equipment to the NATO combat group being stationed in Estonia. In addition to the tanks, the French servicemen are equipped with VBCI infantry combat vehicles and VAB armoured vehicles. At present there are 50 French servicemen in Estonia, the remainder will arrive in the first half of April. The French will be serving at Tapa for the next eight months, after which they will hand over responsibility to the Danes.
The Estonian Defence Forces have prior experience working with the French in the operation in the Central African Republic as well as the anti-piracy operation Atalanta.
The combat group is comprised of nearly 1200 allied soldiers. The United Kingdom is contributing more than 800 servicemen, along with Challenger 2 tanks, Warrior infantry fighting vehicles, as well as AS90 self-propelled guns, and armoured vehicles.
Last June, at the Warsaw Summit, the leaders of NATO’s 28 member countries decided, as a result of the changed security situation, to station alliance combat groups in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland. The United Kingdom is the lead country for the allied battle group to be stationed in Estonia, with France and Denmark also contributing.
Photo gallery: http://pildid.mil.ee/index.php?/category/58022