KRIVOLAK, North Macedonia –
U.S. Soldiers assigned to Bravo Company, 572nd Brigade Engineer Battalion, 86th Infantry Brigade Combat Team (Mountain), Vermont National Guard cross-train U.S. infantrymen and Austrian Land Force personnel on various demolition techniques, June 1-3, 2025, during Immediate Response 25, a large-scale, joint exercise with NATO Allies and Partners at the Krivolak Training Area, Krivolak, North Macedonia, taking place May 26 to June 9, as part of DEFENDER 25, the U.S. Army’s premier large-scale deployment exercise in Europe.
This training provides the U.S. and Austrian Land Forces service members the opportunity to expand their knowledge of combined demolition and breaching operations while collaborating and strengthening the bilateral relationship between both nations.
“The goal today is to train the infantry on what the engineers do. Our engineers are normally there to reduce obstacles or breach. The battalion commander’s intent here is to train the infantry on what we do,” said U.S. Army Sgt. 1st Class Daniel Hart, range safety officer. “Especially because there’s a high mortality rate for engineers doing a complex breach. It’s very important that they [the infantry] know how to do our job.”
The bilateral training focused on how to put together and use a series of different charges, as well as the context in which they are to be deployed.
“These guys are going to be learning what we do, kinda crawl, walk, run,” said Hart. “They're all priming their own blocks of C4. They’re building all of the charges here, pulling M19s first, priming urban breacher charges. We’ve got donut charges, linear charges, and water impulse charges. Once they do that, then they’ll be priming their brazier charges, which we use to breach wire obstacles.”
The culminating event was the detonation of a cratering charge with over 500 pounds of explosives. According to Hart, cratering charges like these are used to make routes impassable in order to prevent enemy vehicles from crossing significant terrain points. Training like this is only possible outside of the United States where there exists restrictions on the amount of explosives that can be detonated at a time.
The most important part of the training exercise to the commander was getting the unit out into the field to put their skills into practice, as training in an environment like this exposes the troops to conditions they otherwise would not experience in the United States. The troops face various challenges as they maneuver through unfamiliar mountainous terrain, navigate the language barriers with their partners, and handle more complex and practical aspects of deploying.
“This is the first time that a lot of our guys have gone out of the CONUS to do training,” said U.S. Army Capt. Michael Pinckney, Bravo Company commander. “They’re learning a lot about everything that goes into deployment, redeployment operations; that’s a huge thing, and just collaborating with our NATO partners. It’s a very unique experience for our guys.”
In addition, this cross-training event with Austria bolsters the coalition’s ability to execute complex operations and strengthens their ability to cooperate during larger-scale operations. The State Partnership Program, in which Vermont and Austria are paired, is an initiative created to help the United States and their partner nations build strong relations, strengthen their bilateral cooperation, and prepare for future challenges.
“My favorite part of training with the Austrians is that they are a partner nation in the State Partnership Program with Vermont; so it’s very good to get to know them since we may see them again.” states Pinckney, “They’re very skilled mountaineers; that's a big part of what they do so it’s interesting to work with them and see what they do.”
DEFENDER 25 as a whole provided various units and nations the ability to cooperate and strengthen their bilateral relationships in a larger and more simulated environment. It also presented troops the opportunity to experience and navigate through moving large equipment and resources across the ocean to a theatre resembling one they might find themselves in should they be deployed.
Demonstrating global deterrence and the U.S. Army’s ability to rapidly deploy U.S.-based combat power in Europe and the Arctic region alongside Allies and partners, DEFENDER 25 brings U.S. troops together with forces from 29 Allied and partner nations to build readiness through large-scale combat training from May 11-June 24, 2025. DEFENDER 25 increases the lethality of the NATO alliance through large-scale tactical training maneuvers and long-range fires, builds unit readiness in a complex joint, multinational environment and leverages host nation capabilities to increase the U.S. Army’s operational reach. During three large-scale combat training exercises—Swift Response, Immediate Response, and Saber Guardian—Ally and partner forces integrate and expand multi-domain operations capability, demonstrating combined command and control structures and readiness to respond to crisis and conflict.