Latvian Combat Engineer Battalion puts capabilities of Estonian, allied equipment to test.

The Combat Engineer Battalion of the Estonian defense forces on 14 March put the capabilities of Estonian and allied heavy equipment to surmount and clear obstacles built by the combat engineers to a test at the old airfield of the Tapa military base.

BAE Systems Terrier pioneer vehicle (Picture source: Cezary Stachniak)

The demonstration event started with the creation of an abatis by means of an explosion and continued with a demonstration of the surmounting of various obstacles built by the Combat Engineer Battalion, military spokespeople in Tallinn said. In total, the Combat Engineer Battalion built 12 different ground and log obstacles, including antitank ditches, barricades, and a beam post obstacle with barbed wire. "We wished to demonstrate how the equipment of the Estonian defense forces and allies can handle obstacles put up by combat engineers," said Maj. Hegert Horn, chief of staff of the Combat Engineer Battalion, adding that the same could be seen by the spectators invited to watch the event.

The obstacles were surmounted by a British Challenger 2 main battle tank and Terrier pioneer tank, a pioneer tank of the Estonian defense forces, a CV9035 armored fighting vehicle of the Scouts Battalion, a Sisu XA180 armored carrier from the Kalev battalion and a three-axle MAN transport vehicle from the Combat Engineer Battalion.