STUTTGART, Germany – U.S. military personnel began participation today in
Exercise Aurora 2017, a Swedish national exercise designed to strengthen
regional defense capabilities, Sept. 19-27.

Locations for the exercise include Mälardalen, Stockholm, Gotland, and
Gothenburg, Sweden. It is the largest national exercise hosted by Sweden in
more than 20 years.

“The interoperability and cooperation of Sweden and the United States
remains vital,” said U.S. Army Gen. Curtis M. Scaparrotti, Commander, U.S.
European Command. “I look forward to continued future military exercises,
like Aurora 17, in which we can all learn and share valuable information for
the profession of arms.”

In addition to 19,000 Swedish participants, approximately 1,300 U.S. service
members from the Army, Marines and Navy will take part in the exercise.
Participating Army and Marine forces include members from the 194th Armor
Minnesota Army National Guard; the 10th Army Air and Missile Defense
Command; the 12th Combat Aviation Brigade; the 2d Cavalry Regiment; the
134th Infantry Regiment (Nebraska ARNG); the 149th Maneuver Enhancement
Brigade (Kentucky ARNG); and Marine Rotational Force - Europe 17.2.
Participating Navy forces include destroyer USS Oscar Austin (DDG 79) and a
P-8A Poseidon from Maritime Patrol Squadron (VP) 16.

U.S. forces participating will train in defensive and offensive operations,
simulated airborne operations, simulated amphibious assault, area security,
and unit level training.

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U.S. European Command is one of the United States’ two forward-deployed
Geographic Combatant Commands whose area of focus cover almost one-fifth of
the planet, including all of Europe, large portions of Asia, parts of the
Middle East and the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans. The command is responsible
for military relations with NATO and 51 countries with a total population of
close to a billion people.