The first short notice reservist exercise begins in Estonia
The first short notice exercise of reservists in Estonia’s history, Okas ("Quill"), began on Friday, Interfax reported.
A decision about holding the exercises was adopted by the government on Thursday. 303 reservists have been called up for the exercise. The goal of this is to work out the chain of command of national defense, starting with the decision making process of the government and ending with the call up of reservists.
All reservists who are taking part in the exercise were personally notified by the Defense Forces. They will all have to appear for duty on December 2nd at 20:00 .
This will be the first short notice exercise held in Estonia and it is held on the basis of an updated law on national defense which entered into force in the summer of this year, and allows for the call up of reservists within 24 hours. Reservists are called up via letter, email or short message sent through the state portal eesti.ee, reports in the media, the Internet, TV, and radio.
The exercise is expected to end on December 5th. Overall, during the weekend, a number of other exercises will take place in Estonia involving a total of two thousand people from the Defense Forces and Kaitseliit (Estonian Defence League).