Celtic Uprise 2019, first Belgian-French exercise in Motorized Capacity framework.

Celtic Uprise 2019 took place in various provinces of southern Belgium, from the 16th to the 27th September. During this Belgian-French exercise, nearly 900 soldiers were deployed, belonging mainly to the Belgian motorized brigade and to the French land forces.

Belgian and French soldiers progressing under the protection of a French VBCI (Picture source: Army Recognition)

This was the first of the brand new bi-national partnership called CaMo (Capacité Motorisée, Motorized Capability), initiated by Maj.Gen. Marc Thys, commander of the Belgian Land Component. Like the Dutch and German armies currently developing a close cooperation between their land forces, the French and Belgian armies are developing an ambitious common doctrine change involving their motorized units. The units, being progressively equipped with some identical armored vehicles, will be totally interchangeable by 2025, having been trained exactly the same way. Both countries will use Griffons and Jaguars, while the French units will also use lighter Serval reconnaissance vehicles and, later, Leclerc XLR upgraded main battle tanks.

To make the exercise more realistic, Celtic Uprise 2019 took place outside usual military training areas. The civilian population was warned about the activities of many soldiers sometimes firing blank ammos, helicopter overflights, armored vehicles driving throughout villages, etc., night and day.