A company from Jäger Battalion 17 from Strass in Styria arrived at the Walgau barracks on Tuesday evening. The soldiers will relieve the police as part of a security assistance mission. Their deployment begins on Thursday and is expected to last two months. The Styrians will then be replaced by militia soldiers.
Immediately after arriving at the Walgau barracks, the soldiers were grouped together and then taken to their accommodation in Bregenz, Hohenems and Au. The distribution of units is intended to shorten the distances to possible deployment locations and reduce the risk of contagion. Some of the soldiers will remain in the Walgau barracks and will carry out their assigned tasks from there.
Today, the managers of the assistance company are instructed in their future tasks by the provincial police directorate, in compliance with the measures to prevent infection. The soldiers are subordinate to the Vorarlberg Military Command, but their assignments are determined by the Provincial Police Directorate. Jäger Battalion 23 in the Walgau barracks currently only has a small number of basic conscripts – these are needed for barracks operations. The cadre presence unit (Walgau/Landeck) is available for rapid international deployments and 60 cadre soldiers are assigned by the armed forces as a reserve for the whole of Austria. The soldiers of the Vorarlberg military band and the pioneer platoon are currently being trained in Bregenz so that they can also be available for security police assistance missions should this become necessary.
