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The 120 troops of the Brasov-based 228th 'Piatra Craiului' Air Defence Battalion who will be deployed to Poland between September 2017 - March 2018 participated on Thursday in the departure ceremony held at the battalion headquarters. The Romanian force, equipped with 35-mm Oerlikon anti-aircraft guns, will be part of the US-led NATO battlegroup, having the mission to ensure, in a rotational system, the forward strengthened presence in the north-east of the Alliance and deter all potential aggression in accordance with the measures adopted at the Warsaw Summit.
Commander of the 228th 'Piatra Craiului' Air Defence Battalion, Lt. Col. Robert Stefan Godri, said that the servicemen are very well prepared after having completed a three-month training stint at the Capu Midia shooting range, and are able to fulfill any mission and face any challenge whatever the location. "After a long training period, that is three months, we have completed all the stages and fulfilled all the goals set for the training of the troops. Training at the Capu Midia shooting range was successful and earned the soldiers appreciation from the final assessment commission that rated their action capability in air and land live fire, and the troops' ratings were very good. This means that the servicemen are ready to handle any mission, any challenge, wherever they would go. It's the first such mission for the 228th 'Piatra Craiului' Air Defence Battalion, the Lt. Col. Godri said.
Captain Chelmea Marius, Air Defence Detachment commander with a 10-year career as an officer, and who has been on missions to Afghanistan in 2012 and in Germany for a one-month air defence exercise, voiced confidence that the soldiers will successfully carry through this mission. It is the first mission of this kind for this battalion, and emotions are quite high. Everyone knows Afghanistan, this here is a new theater, it is not an open conflict, it's a war of attrition, a rather psychological warfare. We hope that things don't escalate to an open war, but we are prepared anyway. It will be difficult because it is an unknown mission, but we learn on the run what we have to do there. We have well-trained troops, many of them with international missions under the belt, and it will surely be well in the end, the commander of the Air Defence Detachment said.
The Brasov-based troops will replace their fellow servicemen from the Craiova-headquartered 205th "Gen. Gheorghe Parvulescu" Air Defence Battalion who served in the previous six-month rotation.
