Photo By Spc. Nathan Morse | U.S. Air Force Senior Airmen Reese Riccardo, a tactical air control party craftsman,...... read more read more
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Camp Tapa, Estonia — Nestled deep within the Baltic country of Estonia, Soldiers with the 5th Squadron, 7th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Armor Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, alongside allied forces, executed a combined arms live fire exercise, or CALFEX, July 21-25, at the Central Training Area.
During the CALFEX, in support of Task Force Iron, U.S. Soldiers partnered with Estonian, British and Canadian armed forces, to showcase interoperability and combat readiness.
“The training that we've conducted all week was a combined arms live fire exercise, which assesses our troop commanders in terms of their core competencies, to execute both reconnaissance and security operations under live fire conditions,” said Lt. Col Jonathan Roland, the squadron commander of the 5th Squadron, 7th Cavalry Regiment, the 1st armor Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division. “Additionally, we have here today a plethora of international partners and allies that are working in concert with us.”
The complex exercise involved mortars, cavalry scouts, fire and air support teams, armored vehicles from each participating nation, and the Army’s newest technology, first person view drones.
“We have a host of allies and partners that are going to be working alongside us,” said Rolland. “Most notably, we have our Estonian friends that are providing localized support in terms of unmanned aerial system capability.”
The exercise began with the allied forces cross training on each other's weapon systems and tactics. The multinational force conducted several dry-fire iterations which allowed them to rehearse their plan of attack in preparation for the live fire portion.
“If you look at some of the other partners, Portuguese, Canadians, and our British friends, they are here providing tremendous support and capability, really turning this from a troop assessment to a more holistic NATO exercise,” explained Rolland. “This is certainly well beyond anything that we can replicate in the United States.”
The exercise was not only used as an opportunity for Soldiers to demonstrate lethality and qualify in their craft, and further develop their Soldier concept.
“We have to do exercises like this,” said Rolland. “ We have to put ourselves in uncomfortable situations where we're really exercising those partnerships and some of those command relationships. It means having collaborative dialog. It means having these hard exercises. And we've done that, and we'll continue to do that.”
After completing this exercise, The 5-7 Cav will conduct an emergency deployment response exercise to maintain combat readiness.
“Our troops have done a wonderful job,” said Rolland. “This is the capstone of an entire deployment, and to see them integrate with our partners to go ahead and execute foundationally and fundamentally sound reconnaissance security tasks, has been a true joy to watch, and I'm very much looking forward to our last troop executing their final iteration.”
| Date Taken: | 07.25.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 07.31.2025 04:37 |
| Story ID: | 544349 |
| Location: | TAPA, LääNE-VIRUMAA, EE |
| Web Views: | 125 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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