Danish soldiers return home after the final phase of the TARASSIS exercise series
TARASSIS covers a series of exercise activities in cooperation between the Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF) countries. With the recently concluded Austere Shield exercise, the soldiers have now returned home with strengthened knowledge of and cooperation with their international colleagues from the JEF countries.
October 29, 2025 - 12:34
The Danish contribution during Austere Shield consisted of a Search group and an Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) group from the Engineer Regiment. Photo: Jim Gibson / UK MOD
By the Danish Defence Command
Danish forces participated in the TARASSIS exercise series in September and October as part of the JEF cooperation. Here, soldiers have trained a range of military deployments designed to demonstrate the JEF countries' strength, cooperation, and reach across the entire Northern European area.
The most recently concluded exercise, Austere Shield, took place in Latvia, where soldiers from the JEF nations practiced the deployment of British land forces to demonstrate the ability to support and reinforce the Latvian armed forces with logistical support and the protection of key facilities.
The Danish contribution during Austere Shield consisted of a Search group and an Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) group from the Engineer Regiment.
Danish and British engineers have a long tradition of cooperation. Photo: Jim Gibson / UK MOD
"We supported the British troops in their task execution with searching, ammunition disposal, and security during the exercise. Completely classic EOD and Search tasks, such as securing and expanding a runway," explains Platoon Leader Nicolai, who participated in the exercise.
Important partners
JEF is an important partnership for the Danish Defence. Here, Denmark works together with the other member countries to create a strong supplement to NATO that can be the first to deploy and secure areas in the Baltic Sea region, the North Atlantic, and the area north of the Arctic Circle, for example, to prepare them for the reception of further NATO forces.
Among the other member countries, the United Kingdom is a particularly important partner. Danish and British forces have worked closely together for many years. Soldiers from the Engineer Regiment had a particularly close collaboration during the operations in Afghanistan, where engineers were deployed under British command, cooperating on clearing ammunition in Helmand province. According to Company Commander Michael, this is still clearly felt in the cooperation today.
"Our way of working is one-to-one transferable with the British. We do it the same way, we have the same NATO courses, and we have really strong cooperation when it comes to EOD and Search," says Michael.
