Exercise Peace Summit 06
From 27th March to 7th April 2006, the 23rd mountain troop brigade of the German Bundeswehr and various Austrian troops under the leadership of the Austrian Armed Forces' 6th infantry brigade engaged in a binational peace keeping exercise.
On the territory of the eastern Tyrol, a realistic conflict scenario simulating situations commonly experienced by UN soldiers on peace keeping missions was based on suppression of minorities, escalation of conflicts and a EU troop deployment to secure a truce line, the latter being realised by Austro-German troops.
Alpine operations
Soldiers from various backgrounds, including Austrian officer cadets and the elite Jagdkommando engaged in this exercise to put their abilities into practise, with an emphasis on alpine combat. This encompassed airborne operations in mountains, camp and bridge construction, deployment of artillery and, above all, realistic hands-on monitoring between the two brigades via 300 computers, the efficiency of which was demonstrated to guests such as the Minister of Defence, Günther Platter, a corps of military attachés and an OSCE delegation.
Peace keeping skills
However, combat tactics did not make up the entire bulk of challenges to be met, as soldiers also had to familiarize themselves with negotiative skills, how to cope with protestors and generally how to interact with civilians properly. These ambitions were met with great interest by the locals, who attended open days and the final parade enthusiastically.
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For the AAF, Peace Summit 06 was the biggest exercise in 2006.
5,600 soldiers participated in the training.