NATO-TV

At the NATO Summit in Wales last year, nations agreed to the creation of a Readiness Action Plan or RAP, to ensure the alliance is ready to respond swiftly and firmly to new security challenges. This is the most significant reinforcement of NATO's collective defence since the end of the Cold War. The RAP addresses risks and threats from the east and the south. The RAP consists of a package of measures including more land, sea and air exercises, more long-term changes to NATO forces and command structure and the creation of a new task force with some elements able to deploy within 48 hours notice. Footage includes shots of various exercises and soundbites from NATO’s Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and the US Ambassador to NATO Douglas E. Lute.

Teaser: NATO's undertaking more land, sea and air exercises and is creating a new task force, around 5000 strong, which will be able to deploy with 48 hours notice to wherever it is needed. It's all part of RAP or the Readiness Action Plan.

The Georgian company in the NATO Response Force practices an attack on an infiltrating enemy platoon threatening to damage infrastructure. NATO monitors are onsite to determine skills of this company for further certification. Also video of separate but simultaneous Exercise Agile Spirit, with US Marines and other allied nations. Interview with Georgian company commander and US Marine

Three nations team up to form a joint brigade, a historic combination of military expertise that is due to be fully operational by 2016. At the Ukrainian military academy in Lviv in Eastern Ukraine an agreement was recently signed between the defense ministers of Poland, Ukraine and Lithuania to form a multinational brigade. Interviews with the Lithuanian defense minister and representatives from the Polish and Ukrainian military. This version includes soundbites and graphics.

Operation Rapid Trident was combined with operation Saber Guardian this year at the Partnership for Peace military training ground in Yovoriv, Western Ukraine, bringing together at total of 18 nations with over 1,800 soldiers. Days of individual training events culminated in a large scale 2 day exercise pitting various nations against each other in a large scale simulated war game. Interviews from various nations involved, including Ukrainians, US and Lithuanians as well as footage of the exercises. Also available in high definition. Includes sound bites from Sergeant ‘Igor’, 1st Battalion Ukrainian Marines; Col. Alfred Renzi, Chief of Assessments, U.S. Army Europe Operations Directorate; Sergeant Bryson Lipscomb, U.S. Army, 173rd Airborne Brigade and Private Audrius Zbrauskas, Grand Duchess Birute Uhlan Battalion, Lithuanian Army. Also available in high definition.

NATO led testing of non-lethal weapons aims to trial different systems and how military personnel use them. In the North Sea, near Zeebrugge, Belgian, German and Dutch forces conduct a boarding scenario of a suspicious vessel with a combination of rifles, loudspeakers, lasers and water guns to see how best to give enforcers an additional option to safely deescalate a potentially dangerous situation.

In a conflict situation, security personnel often don’t have an option between shout and shoot. Non-lethal weapons that can incapacitate, but not kill or inflict lasting damage can give that option. NATO is leading tests of a range of weapons systems, aimed to understand how best forces can use these to safely conduct operations.

In Rustavi, an old Georgian city 40 kilometers from Tbilisi, a group of freerunners spin, jump and somersault their way through concrete parks and derelict buildings. NATO Channel talks to these young daredevils about the future of their nation, the 2008 war with Russia, and what it takes to become a parkour specialist. This version includes soundbites and graphics.

As the Estonian Army’s Scouts Battalion prepare to take part in NATO exercise Trident Juncture in October, some of the soldiers talk about what they hope to bring to the exercise and what they hope to get from it. The Battalion practices storming buildings and firing at targets just outside the Estonian town of Voru.

Trident Juncture is NATO’s most ambitious land, sea and air exercise in more than a decade. Involving 36,000 troops from 30 Allied and Partner Nations, it is primarily hosted by Italy, Portugal and Spain.

Storming buildings, disabling the enemy, live fire training – all part of the Estonian army’s preparation for international exercise Trident Juncture. Some of the soldiers talk about what they’re bringing to the exercise and what they hope to get from it.

This version includes graphics and voiceover.

Norway has modernized its fleet of infantry fighting vehicles by buying 144 of the latest technologically advanced CV90 vehicles. The vehicles will bolster and strengthen two battalions of the Norwegian Army’s mechanized infantry. The country’s Minister of Defense Ine Marie Eriksen Soreide says, “We are not only building defense capacities for Norway, but for NATO.” Footage includes the unveiling of the new vehicle, live firing, soundbites from senior Norwegian military officials and the country’s Minister of Defense. The unveiling took place yesterday in Setermoen, northern Norway.

On the 1st September the United States and Ukraine, along with 9 other partner nations, launched exercise Sea Breeze 2015 in the Black Sea. With the Ukrainian port city of Odessa acting as a staging point for operations, the 14th annual multinational exercise took place against the backdrop of Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea and the continuing civil war in Ukraine. Naval drills will be conducted at sea, alongside smaller drills at dock and on shore. We take a look at how the troops on the ground of a partner nation like Ukraine and the US work with each other, sharing a common bond of the sea which transcends cultural and linguistic barriers. Footage of joint exercises, including a dramatic helicopter medevac, hand to hand combat and deep sea dive training interspersed with sound bites from both Ukrainian and US naval personnel. Teaser: Across the oceans and linguistic barriers, personnel from the Ukrainian and U.S navies share common bonds and make good use of an annual multinational event to learn from each other.

The alliance boosts its collective defence capability with four US Navy ballistic missile-defence destroyers, countering increased threats from short and long range missiles and offering protection for NATO forces, territories and populations.