European Diary: The six paratroopers glide silently to the ground, hitting their landing site with pinpoint accuracy. Within seconds the soldiers fan out over the rough terrain, trying to secure the area against the rebels.
The crack of machinegun fire signals they are under attack. Taking cover the troops order an airstrike. Suddenly two jets scream overhead, strafing the tree line where the rebels are dug in. Then the tanks arrive to mop up the rebels. "Mission complete," says Sgt Maj Ray Duke of the Defence Forces. "This is the type of mission we will face in the Nordic battlegroup. We are just finished in Liberia and these weapons and equipment were deployed there too."
The military exercise is a drill taking place in Enköping, Sweden, rather than a real situation. Duke is one of four Irish officers taking part in MILEX 07, the EU's second military exercise carried out under its European Security and Defence Policy. The command post exercise is testing Europe's crisis management forces just six months before the Nordic battlegroup is placed on standby in case of a crisis.
Sweden is the lead country. Ireland, Norway, Finland and Estonia are supplying men and equipment to the 2,500-strong EU rapid reaction force.
The Irish contribution is a specialised bomb squad unit that will search main supply routes for roadside bombs and make them safe.
Knitting together teams that include several nationalities is the responsibility of force commander Brig Gen Karl Engelbrektson. "Having a multinational force is always a challenge but the key is time and training," he says. "My motto is victory through values. It is about the person and capabilities, the mindset and the values that we can portray in an operations area."
Many of the 2,300 Swedish troops in the battlegroup are conscripts in their 20s, who have just finished training. In contrast, the 80 or so Irish soldiers due to join the group shortly have vast experience of UN peacekeeping missions.
"I've served in Liberia, Ivory Coast, Lebanon and on another mission in the Middle East," says Brian Fitzsimons, a commandant in the Defence Forces. It is his job to analyse the situation on the ground and decide how best to deploy an EU rapid reaction force. He explains that this exercise is based in the fictitious African state "Alisia" where there is fighting between a transitional government and a rebel group called the National Freedom Movement. An overstretched UN mission is on the ground but the deployment of aid to refugee camps is hampered. The battlegroup's mission is to restore order and aid.
"There is a lot of unrest, a lot of internally displaced people in camps, difficult lines of communication, just one airport, so we have to mix our forces and decide where do we put emphasis, on patrolling or on defence," he says.
Simulation exercises are a key part of the training required to test the preparedness of the EU battlegroup strategy, expanded this year as part of the Union's expansion of its security and defence policy. Since January the EU has two battlegroups on standby for six-month periods in case of the need for rapid deployment to tackle a security or humanitarian crisis.
"The battlegroup concept represents an extension of Europe's capabilities. The first ESDP mission was in 2003. Now there have been 17 or 18 operations," says Daniel Keohane, of the EU Institute for Security Studies. "Most operations have not included military personnel but have been civilian with judges, police or other civil experts deployed. I think this shows that the EU is in the business of peacemaking."
The "Alisia" simulation has a civilian police mission and is also using a newly-opened EU operational headquarters based in Brussels. This new HQ gives the EU the capability to run its operations independently of the larger European states. "This gives us flexibility," says Lieut Gen David Leakey, who says that for political or resource reasons big EU states may not want to run a mission from their headquarters.
This flexibility could be required come January. Observers at the drill in Sweden noted how "Alisia" bore a striking resemblance to war-torn Darfur.