NATO MUltimedia

Ships firing and helicopters flying over the Danube River, these were just some of the sights to be seen in Romania, as Exercise Saber Guardian 2019 came to an end.

Ships firing and helicopters flying over the Danube River, these were just some of the sights to be seen in Romania, as Saber Guardian 2019 came to an end. The exercise involved more than 8,000 soldiers from six NATO Allied and partner nations. It took place across Bulgaria, Hungary and Romania. Saber Guardian 2019 was co-led by Romanian Land Forces and U.S. Army Europe. Countries taking part included Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Romania, Turkey and the United States. Saber Guardian 2019 ran from 3 until 24 June.

This footage includes shots of ships firing, helicopters flying over the Danube River, troops and military vehicles crossing the river, and explosions on the side of the river during the Distinguished Visitors Day and soundbites from the Commander of Allied Land Command, Lieutenant General John C. Thomson.

1. (00:00) VARIOUS SHOTS – RIB BOATS ON THE DANUBE RIVER AND HELICOPTERS FLYING ABOVE, THE SOUND OF SHOTS FIRING
2. (00:17) VARIOUS SHOTS – ROMANIAN SHIP FIRING
3. (00:28) WIDE SHOT – SHIP SAILING ON RIVER
4. (00:39) VARIOUS SHOTS – TROOPS RUNNING ONTO SHIP
5. (00:59) VARIOUS SHOTS – HELICOPTERS FLYING OVER EXERCISE GROUND
6. (01:17) VARIOUS SHOTS – CHINOOK HELICOPTER CARRYING AND DROPPING SLING LOAD INTO RIVER
7. (01:43) WIDE SHOT – SHIP SAILING ON RIVER
8. (01:47) VARIOUS SHOTS – SHIP CARRYING MILITARY VEHICLES ON RIVER
9. (02:03) WIDE SHOT – HELICOPTER HOVERING ABOVE RIVER, SHIP BELOW
10. (02:08) VARIOUS SHOTS – VARIOUS SHIPS ON THE RIVER DANUBE
11. (02:37) VARIOUS SHOTS – EXPLOSIONS ON THE SIDE OF THE RIVER
12. (02:48) VARIOUS SHOTS – TROOPS AND MILITARY VEHICLES CROSSING THE RIVER
13. (03:10) SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) LIEUTENANT GENERAL JOHN C. THOMSON, COMMANDER, ALLIED LAND COMMAND

“It’s a great day in NATO, a fantastic day in NATO. What we just witnessed here today, for DV Day for Saber Guardian 2019, is a very impressive display of combined arms operations that were joint in nature, multi-domain operations and very multinational and that was a very complex operation, bridging the Danube River when it’s a flood stage quite frankly, it’s flowing a lot faster and pushing across a multinational brigade’s worth of equipment is very impressive, that’s a very complex operation. It was great to see the maritime component, the Special Forces component, and the air component all working together with the land component to achieve such an impressive operation.

1. (03:52) SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) LIEUTENANT GENERAL JOHN C. THOMSON, COMMANDER, ALLIED LAND COMMAND

“The Black Sea region is critical to NATO, it’s critical to Europe, and it’s critical to the Euro Atlantic for many many reasons. It’s geographically important. You’ve got several big bodies of water, not just the Danube but the Black Sea out there. It’s a very critical region for all of Europe in terms of economy. It really gets down to our shared values, what we hold in common. I am NATO, I only wear one hat, even though I’m US and I wouldn’t even call this a US-led exercise, this was a multilateral exercise, many nations – the big ones being Romania and the United States, but Hungary was a part of it, Bulgaria and some other smaller nations.”