Together with comrades from the German Bundeswehr and the Slovenian armed forces, Jäger Battalion 17 from Straß will be practicing until 24 May as part of the “Panther24” exercise at the Allentsteig military training area. Militär Aktuell visited the Styrian comrades in the Waldviertel.
The home of Jäger Battalion 17 is actually the Archduke Johann Barracks in the garrison town of Straß in Styria. The soldiers’ motto is a quote attributed to the Greek philosopher Plato: “If the good do not fight, then the bad will win”. The members of the unit use the historic hunter’s salute “Horridoh!” in everyday military life In addition to standard infantry equipment, the unit also has anti-tank guided missiles, heavy grenade launchers, the Pandur Evolution wheeled tank (-> infographic) and the Iveco LMV and Dingo light armored multipurpose vehicles.
Competence Center Pandur Evolution
For the Pandur wheeled armored vehicle, Jägerbataillon 17 sees itself as a competence center within the Armed Forces and intends to continue to fulfil and further strengthen this role in the future, as battalion commander Lieutenant Colonel Georg Pilz emphasizes in an interview with Militär Aktuell: “The brand essence of Jäger Battalion 17 will continue to be protected infantry in the future and our aim is to remain THE Pandur Evolution competence center. In addition, our unit will be increasingly equipped to become an assertive unit in the coming years. This will also involve capabilities that we don’t yet have. I’m thinking of drones, for example. A lot of new equipment will be coming our way in the next few years. A lot is also happening in the Pandur area, as Austria will be procuring a further 225 additional vehicles in different variants – and some of these versions will also be relevant for us as Jägerbataillon 17.”
“The brand essence of Jägerbataillon 17 will continue to be protected infantry, and our aim is to remain THE Pandur Evolution competence center.”
Oberstleutnant Georg Pilz, Kommandant des Jägerbataillons 17
Partner associations from Germany & Slovenia involved
The Jäger battalion’s partnership with the 371 Armored Infantry Battalion from Marienberg (Germany) and the 74 Infantry Regiment from Maribor in Slovenia are also relevant. Together with soldiers from these two units, the Styrian comrades also moved to the Allentsteig military training area in the Waldviertel in mid-May to hold the “Panther24” exercise there. Also taking part are members of Jäger Battalion 19 from Güssing, Jäger Battalion 33 from Zwölfaxing (formerly Panzer Battalion 33), the Guard from Vienna and some engineers. A total of 480 comrades from Austria and abroad are taking part in the exercise, which will last until May 24. The largest contingent, with around 200 soldiers, is made up of Jäger Battalion 17.
The preparations for the exercise were quite complex, as battalion commander Lieutenant Colonel Georg Pilz knows: “It required a considerable amount of advance notification and approval. The participation of our comrades from Germany and Slovenia had to be registered and approved by military diplomats.”
One of the first official actions of the members of Jäger Battalion 17 after arriving in Allentsteig was to line up at a small, inconspicuous wooden cross on an armored road (near Gatschwiesn) on the military training area. This memorial commemorates Recruit Rene Großschädl, who was killed in an accident there on July 8, 1998. The young soldier was a member of Jäger Regiment 5, which was stationed in Straß. True to the motto “Only those who are forgotten are dead”, his comrades once again paid tribute to him more than 25 years after his death.
During Militär Aktuell’s visit to the “Panther24” battalion command post at the Kaufholz camp (it was raining cats and dogs, low clouds and fog had the military training area firmly in their grip), battalion commander Lieutenant Colonel Georg Pilz explained the exercise scenario: “We chose an international scenario as the starting point, which also justifies the fact that we have integrated a German and a Slovenian platoon into our company. The scenario is an EU force deployed in a fictitious unstable foreign state in which the EU has a training mission.”
“The focus of the ‘Panther24’ exercise is live fire,” Pilz continues. The officer specifies: “In the exercise scenario, Austria is part of a multinational unit. The core of the shooting is formed by a protected fighter company with two Austrian fighter platoons on Pandur and Dingo respectively. They are joined by a protected Slovenian wheeled armored platoon and a German infantry platoon with Marder infantry fighting vehicles. There are also a number of support elements, such as heavy grenade launchers, the anti-tank guided missile 2000, heavy snipers and even sappers to blow up a tree blockade.”
Thinking outside the box
The Styrian soldiers are very familiar with the Allentsteig military training area. “We are here at least once a year on average,” says Lieutenant Colonel Pilz. “International cooperation is instructive and broadens our horizons. All exercise participants benefit from this. Everyone takes something new away with them.” While radio communication with the German partner unit is in German for obvious reasons, communication with the Slovenian soldier is exclusively in English. Lieutenant Colonel Pilz: “We are also expanding our skills in this respect. The ‘Panther24’ therefore represents real added value in military terms and allows us to look beyond our own horizons.“
Before the international troops finally set off on their sharpshooting mission in the autumn weather, Lieutenant Colonel Pilz welcomes all the comrades with a short speech. He then hands over to Major König, who gives a detailed safety briefing – once in English for the Slovenians and once in German for the Austrians and Germans. The top priority: safety comes first, before the mission. Clear instructions are issued for all possible incidents, such as fire, injuries and vehicle damage.
The “mount up” command is then given and the convoy heads out into the field, where the theoretical exercise scenarios are put into practice.
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