How do NATO Allies train to counter a form of warfare that is difficult to identify and hard to defend against?
Hybrid means of warfare – propaganda, deception, sabotage and other non-military tactics – have long been used in lieu of (or sometimes in conjunction with) overt, conventional military action. In recent years, the use of hybrid tactics has increased in speed, scale and intensity. How does NATO counter this difficult, covert threat? In 2018, Latvia held Exercise Namejs, its largest military maneuver since the restoration of independence in 1991. They practiced responding against what Chief of Defense Lieutenant General Leonīds Kalniņš called a scenario “very, very close to our perception about threats in our region” – that is, a wide-scale disinformation campaign as a prelude to armed conflict. Exercises like Namejs are useful not only for Latvia, but for the Alliance at large, as Allies share hard-won information and best practices. Footage includes shots of NATO Allies during Namejs 18 and soundbites from NATO Deputy Secretary General Rose Gottemoeller, Ben Heap, a hybrid warfare expert at the NATO Strategic Communications Center of Excellence, and Lt. Gen. Leonīds Kalniņš.
Transcript
1. (00:00) VARIOUS SHOTS: SIMULATED RIOT IN JEKABPILS, LATVIA 2. (01:03) VARIOUS SHOTS: LATVIAN RIOT POLICE ARRIVE ON SCENE 3. (01:34) VARIOUS SHOTS: LATVIAN RIOT POLICE ADVANCE ON PROTESTERS 4. (02:07) VARIOUS SHOTS: LATVIAN RIOT POLICE DETAIN PROTESTERS 5. (02:23) VARIOUS SHOTS: PROTESTER FIRES MACHINE GUN OUT A DOOR 6. (02:31) VARIOUS SHOTS: LATVIAN SPECIAL OPERATIONS UNIT OPERATORS FAST-ROPE FROM HELICOPTER ONTO BUILDING 7. (02:43) VARIOUS SHOTS: OPERATORS ASSAULT BUILDING 8. (02:54) VARIOUS SHOTS: OPERATORS THROW FLASH-BANG GRENADES 9. (03:00) VARIOUS SHOTS: OPERATORS MOVE THROUGH BUILDING 10. (03:35) SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH): Ben Heap, hybrid warfare expert, NATO StratCom Center of Excellence “Hybrid threats are really anything our adversaries can use against us that would damage our national security. And this is activity that can be overt, so it’s out in the open, or it’s covert, so it’s hidden.” 11. (03:46) SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH): Lieutenant General Leonīds Kalniņš, chief of defense, Republic of Latvia “Our scenario was very, very close to our perception about threats in our region. We have to train our soldiers, our leadership, military leadership, to think wider, to be very creative.”
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