French Foreign Legion sappers train to shoot with their future HK 416.

For more than a dozen days, all the soldiers who make up the LYNX 5 Mission Combat Sub-Group (sous-groupement tactique interarmes, SGTIA) left to train in Nursipalu, more than 200 kilometers south of Tapa, near the Latvian border.

French legionnaire firing with an HK 416 (Picture source: French MoD/Elise Foucaud)

On the agenda of these ten days of field training: various instructions on the firing with exercises with the different weapons in endowment and a combat exercise in an urban area. For the sappers of the 1st Regiment of Foreign Engineering (1er REG, Régiment Etranger de Génie), it was an opportunity to become familiar with the HK 416 firing which they will be equipped from 2020.

The first instructions involved learning the different techniques of individual light weapons fire. This involved training on combat fire and operational control of light weapons, with the aim of teaching the basics of long-range fire and marksmanship. This bivouac also allowed the youngest soldiers to benefit from basic general training, an essential examination in the career of a non-commissioned member who wishes to become a team leader.

During this training, the 1st REG soldiers first saw the ISTC (Combat Shooting Instruction) rules adapted to this weapon; they then made habituation and adjustment shots before moving on to technical and tactical fire. At the end of the session, about 40 sappers validated the different firing modules at HK 416, so they are among the first soldiers of the 1st REG to obtain their certification on the new assault rifle.

In addition, some SGTIA groups also followed for a two-day instruction in "British individual light weapons fire", achieving qualifications such as the Annual Combat Marksmanship Test (ACMT) and the Close Quarter Battle (CQB). Supervised by British instructors of the Battle Group, this instruction participates in exchanges established throughout the mandate, promoting interoperability and mutual knowledge of the two contingents.

Declared by the Heads of State and Government at the Warsaw Summit in 2016, the NATO Enhanced Forward Presence (EFP) allows Allies to deploy a limited number of military forces in the countries Baltic states and Poland. This non-permanent commitment aims to further strengthen the Alliance's defense posture by a deterrent, purely defensive system, according to a collectively validated plan. In this context, France engages in Estonia in 2019 a device articulated around 300 French soldiers and an S-GTIA composed of 4 Leclerc tanks and 13 VBCI IFVs.This Lynx mission is integrated into a battalion commanded by Britain.