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NATO exercise in Poland

01 May 1997

In April NATO held its largest ever exercise in Eastern Europe. Over 4,000 troops with 1,500 vehicles of the Dutch Army as well as helicopters and F-16s of the Dutch Air Force practised high-intensity conflict scenarios in north-west Poland between 1 and 20 April. The deployed units included a mechanised brigade and components of the air-mobile brigade. The objectives of "Rhino Drawsko" were to conduct a brigade-level field training exercise and to exercise a major strategic deployment and logistic sustainment operation.

Six roll-on, roll-of ships were used to ferry 1000 wheeled vehicles from the Netherlands to Poland. Tracked vehicles including Leopard 2 main battle tanks were transported by rail, while troops travelled by road. The helicopters (Apaches, Chinooks and BO 105s) flew to the training area. A logistic support air bridge was maintained by Fokker 60 trans-port aircraft using the Polish base at Miroslawiec as an airhead. Daily offensive missions were flown by Leeuwarden based F-16s, refuelled in mid-air over Germany. The Drawsko-Pomorskie training area east of Szczecin was used for the exercise. The Dutch paid $l million for this. US advisers from Fort Hood, Texas were present.