NATO: Iron Spread tank exercises start in Latvia.

April 8 sees the start of the latest military exercises to take place in Latvia. Dubbed "Iron Spread 2019", the drills will involve the troops stationed in Latvia as part of NATO's enhanced Forward Presence (eFP) and will take place at the Adāži military ranges just outside Rīga, with center stage taken by 14 tanks.

Polish PT-91 Twardy MBT (Picture source: Army Recognition)

German Leopard 2, British Challenger 2 and Polish PT-91 Twardy battle tanks will all be involved, and it will not only be the rotating eFP troops based in Latvia taking part, with allies stationed in Lithuania and Estonia also among participants, according to official information.

The NATO battle group stationed in Latvia has been in place since 2017 and consists of around 1,400 troops in total from various NATO member countries, and is led by Canada.