Cyprus’ National Guard is participating in the multinational exercises “Iniochos 2023” and “Orion 2023”, as part of the wider framework of the operational training of its personnel, the force’s general staff announced on Monday.
According to a press release the National Guard participates in “Iniochos” taking place between April 24-May 7 in Greece, with an Airforce AW-139 helicopter. The Cyprus Airforce staff participates both in the planning of the operations scenarios in collaboration with units of the other countries, as well as in a number of training missions of Combat Search and Rescue, Tactical Airlifts and the execution of special operations episodes, it is reported.
In addition to Greece and Cyprus, Austria, France, the USA, India, Jordan, Spain, Italy, Canada, Saudi Arabia, and Slovenia participate in “Iniochos-2023”, with Germany, the United Arab Emirates, Morocco, Montenegro, Bahrain, Slovakia and Tunisia as observers.
At the same time, the “Orion 23” Special Forces – Special Operations Forces Exercise is taking place, in which the National Guard also participates, with three officers to man the Staff, as well as two Special Operations teams from the Commando Command and one team from the Navy Command, respectively.
The participation of the National Guard in the two exercises, the press release said, was part of the wider framework of the operational training of its personnel and is judged to be particularly beneficial, as it provides the possibility for the personnel to train together with corresponding Units of friendly countries, thus promoting the level of training, interoperability and highlighting the excellent relations between the Armed Forces of the participating countries.