On Thursday 5 December 2019, EUFOR marked the 15-year anniversary of the formation of Operation EUFOR Althea at an event held at the Hall of the Armed Forces BiH, Sarajevo.
The Commander of EUFOR, Major General Reinhard Trischak, spent Thursday 14 November visiting the Vitezit explosives factory in Vitez, along with representatives from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the relevant State and Federation level Ministries who are all taking a keen interest in the potential security implications of the factory’s bankruptcy.
Exercise Quick Response 2019 was completed today, successfully demonstrating that EUFOR in cooperation with its contributing nations are able to conduct large scale Peace Support Operations should it be required.
In the early hours of Thursday 10 October, as part of Exercise Quick Response 19, EUFOR troops demonstrated their ability to secure Sarajevo International Airport and deal with a range of threats to the Safe and Secure Environment. After commercial flying had ceased for the day, the Multinational Battalion in conjunction with LEAs quickly moved into the airport, setting up checkpoints and securing key infrastructure.
Following the successful opening ceremony held at Camp Butmir on the afternoon of Sunday the 6 October, the troops taking part in exercise Quick Response 19 started deploying to locations all over Bosnia and Herzegovina on Monday 7 October.
On the afternoon of Sunday the 6 October the opening ceremony for exercise Quick Response 19 was held at Camp Butmir, Sarajevo. Quick Response is the longstanding annual test of EUFOR’s capability to rapidly reinforce its troops in BiH with part of its reserve forces which are held at high-readiness in partner nations. It is a large scale exercise demonstrating the EU’s resolve and commitment to Bosnia and Herzegovina.
On Monday 23 September the first Antonov 124 flight arrived at Sarajevo International Airport bringing in troops and equipment for EUFOR’s largest annual exercise, Quick Response 19 (QR19).
On Friday 27 September part of EUFOR’s Austrian reserve arrived at Camp Butmir, bringing in over 100 troops from the Austrian 6th Mountain Warfare Brigade for EUFOR’s largest annual exercise, Quick Response 2019 (QR19).
On Friday 20 September, EUFOR received a request from the personnel in their Liaison and Observation Team house in Mostar, to help a female hiker who had collapsed near the village of Krusevljani. Two of EUFOR’s Agusta Bell 212 helicopters were launched with winching capability and medical supplies.
On Thursday 26 September another Antonov 124 and a Royal Air Force Voyager aircraft arrived at Sarajevo International Airport bringing in over 120 British troops from the 1st Battalion the Royal Gurkha Rifles and their final pieces of equipment for EUFOR’s largest annual exercise, Quick Response 2019 (QR19).
EUFOR’s Chief of Staff Brigadier General László Szabó and AFBiH Deputy Chief Joint Staff Operations, Major General Ivica Jerkic, signed the Training and Cooperation plan 2020 today. This demonstrates the intent of EUFOR and AFBiH to continue their long association and continually strive for improvement by training together across a wide range of scenarios.
HQ Staff Photo