Overview
- The Panzerbrigade 45 'Litauen' carried out its first Gefechtsübung in Lithuania on Wednesday, June 10, during the multinational Freedom Shield 2026 training event.
- About 2,900 troops and roughly 800 vehicles from eight NATO countries took part with Germany supplying roughly 2,300 soldiers to the exercise at the Pabrade training area near the Belarus border.
- The Bundeswehr deployed more than 300 drones and used combined-arms training that commanders say draws lessons from the war in Ukraine to improve battlefield sensing and coordination.
- Germany plans to grow the brigade to around 4,800 soldiers and 200 civilian staff by 2027 to make it fully operational and to provide a sustained deterrent on NATO’s eastern flank.
- The deployment occurs close to Belarus and Russia's Kaliningrad exclave, a move meant to reassure Baltic allies and that could raise tensions with Moscow while strengthening NATO interoperability.