Intelligence entities of the Very High Readiness Joint Task Force conduct exercise Black Dragon

Presentation during the exercise (Photo: CGTAD)

Command Post at Viator (Almería) (Photo: CGTAD)

Around 450 soldiers and 50 vehicles from the ISTAR (Intelligence, Surveillance, Target Acquisition, Reconnaissance) Battalion attached to NATO’s Very High Readiness Joint Task Force (VJTF) took part in exercise Black Dragon 16 from 9 to 15 May at the training field and shooting range Álvarez de Sotomayor in Viator (Almería) and the airfield Los Oteros in Pajares de los Oteros (León).

Exercise Black Dragon 16 aims at training and integrating all the intelligence gathering entities which make up this ISTAR Battalion so as to sustain the level of preparation achieved and be able to face any threat or danger. The Battalion, certified last year during exercise Trident Juncture, has at its core the Intelligence Gathering Land Systems Group of the 1st Intelligence Regiment, based in Valencia.

The ISTAR Battalion brings together all sorts of reconnaissance and surveillance resources to obtain information about the battlefield, including UAVs, cavalry reconnaissance vehicles, electronic warfare systems, advanced reconnaissance patrols, a geo-meteo cell, a psychological operations unit… The data received through the different transmission mediums is centralised and then integrated, filtered and made available to all units.

The Battalion is part of the VJTF Brigade, most of whose personnel come from the 7th Light Infantry Brigade ‘Galicia’. The VJTF Brigade is under the command of NATO's Rapid Deployable Corps Headquarters (HQ NRDC-ESP), located in Bétera (Valencia).