NATO's Bold Panzer military training exercises are now into their third week and are set to conclude on Thursday, October 23. According to the commander of Estonia's 1st Infantry Brigade, their key task is to fine-tune coordination with the newly arrived allied units.

"The main thing is the coordinated use of communication systems so that reports up, down, and across are accurate, and at the end of the day, we all have the same understanding of what is happening," Col. Tarmo Kundla, commander of the 1st Infantry Brigade, told ERR.

"We must familiarize the allies who have come to us, with our terrain. It always comes as a surprise to them: it's one thing to see it all in a movie or look at photos, but it's quite another to be in real training with your mechanized units. It is almost impossible to get this kind of experience anywhere else," the colonel explained.

According to Lt. Col. Mark Luson, commander of the allied forces' battle group, said conditions in Estonia are can present some challenges for heavy armor. These include: "The cold so far; but I know it gets a lot colder still, and beyond that it'll be the ground which for us as heavy tanks is proving to be challenging in places, but we're finding our way through it, and we're definitely on the way to success," Luson said.

The new landscape requires adaptations to regular tactics, Lt Col. Luson went on. "We adapt them, we don't change them from basics, we do the same things we've always done, as the British Army, they've been proven over many decades. We simply adapt it to the ground."

With each new rotation, joint work with the Estonian military is getting better, he added. They are also adapting their combat tactics to suit the specific features of the local terrain.

"This is crucial. Throughout the NATO partnership system, it is important to ensure reliable protection of the eastern flank. We must work together with the Estonians, whose security we are helping to strengthen here, as well as with our European allies. The main thing is that we understand how to work together if we ever have to engage in real combat. Whereas we have previously been accustomed to operating in large open spaces, we are now adapting our tactics to work effectively in forests, groves and narrow trails," Luson added.

The "Aktuaalne kaamera" segment covering Exercise Bold Panzer in Estonia is below.

The exercises involve a total of 1,500 military personnel from Estonia, Poland, Slovenia, Canada, the United Kingdom, France and Italy.

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