On 8th October 2015 LTG Ed Davis, DCOM LANDCOM, visited the Slovenian Armed Forces (SAF) Headquarters with the aim of strengthening LANDCOM’s relationship with SAF, enhancing Land and Joint interoperability, and sharing perspectives on common interests and concerns.

SAF provide a significant contribution of personnel to NATO Command and Force Structures, the NRF, the VJTF (in 2018 under an Italian framework) and developing NFIUs in Poland and Hungary.  The SAF is actively engaged in maintaining situational awareness across the Balkans; where Slovenia plays an active role in developing Defence/Security partnerships and building regional capabilities/capacities.  Concurrently, the SAF also contributes to many mutual training support initiatives and Assurance Measures activities under the auspices of multinational exercises with the wider NATO Land Forces Community and USAREUR (e.g. SAF participation in Exercises IMMEDIATE RESPONSE 15, upcoming TRIDENT JUNCTURE 15 and ANACONDA 16). Finally, SAF is committed to developing world-class NATO training centres such as their Mountain Warfare Centre of Excellence and the FAC/JTAC School.  The arrangement ended with the visit to 1^st Brigade where DCOM met the Commander, BG Roman Urbanč, and his Staff for discussions on contemporary tactical-level issues.

LTC Davis was very impressed by the breadth and depth of the SAF’s contribution to NATO commitments and outputs despite the relatively small size of Slovenia’s Armed Forces.  DCOM encouraged SAF to remain proactively engaged in their cooperation with regional Defence/Security partners and to continue with the provision of valuable SAF niche capabilities to the Alliance.  In return, he offered LANDCOM command and staff assistance as a facilitator for future SAF development and employment.