The US Army is set to conduct one of its largest exercises in Europe, primarily in the Balkans, with the main phase taking place in Greece’s northern region of Xanthi.
Approximately 2,000 US military personnel will be deployed to Petrochori in Xanthi from May 26 to June 6, along with forces from France, Bulgaria, Spain and North Macedonia. Smaller-scale scenarios will be simultaneously carried out in Slovakia, Bulgaria, North Macedonia, Kosovo, Albania, Montenegro and Croatia.
The multinational exercise, known as LIVEX Immediate Response 2025, will kick off in Greece. The Hellenic Army will host an opening ceremony marking the commencement of the exercise with multinational participation. Equipment and weaponry to be used during the exercise will also be on display, according to the US Army and Africa website.
The exercise in Greece will feature several key training scenarios, including river-crossing and air assault operations, along with a combined arms live-fire training exercise near Petrochori. Chemical, biological, nuclear and explosive training will also take place at a Greek port to demonstrate a chemical attack disrupting port operations. The exercise will include decontamination scenarios with Greek, French and US forces.
According to Kathimerini, Athens has increasingly utilized the Xanthi tank firing range in Petrochori, which allied forces from the US and Europe have incorporated into their regular training locations. Over the past five years, the US military has begun including Xanthi in its list of preferred training locations in Greece for large-scale exercises like the one currently underway.
US forces participating in Greece will include personnel from the 194th Engineer Brigade, the 86th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, the 20th CBRNE Command, and the National Guard units from Tennessee and Vermont.
In total, 12,000 troops from nine countries—including the United States and its host nations—will participate in LIVEX Immediate Response 2025. The exercise, according to the US Army, aims to enhance defense capabilities against cyber attacks and CBRNE (Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear and Explosives) warfare through NATO state partnership.
Earlier in May, Greece and the US concluded a joint training exercise referred to as “Stolen Cerberus XII,” which aimed to enhance interoperability and airlift capabilities between the two countries.
The two-week exercise, which involved members of the US Air Force and Greek Armed Forces, took place at Elefsina Air Force Base near Athens, Greece and has been hosted annually by the 37th Airlift Squadron for the past twelve years.
During the exercise, three C-30J Super Hercules aircraft from the 86th Airlift Wing in the United States joined Hellenic Air Force C-130H Hercules crews to execute various airlift missions and joint training events. These included low-cost, low altitude and container delivery system airdrops, static line and military free fall jumps, low-level tactical flight maneuvers, aeromedical evacuation scenarios, Airfield Marking Pattern (AMP-4) landings, combat offloads, and forklift familiarization.
Training scenarios were conducted across varied terrain, taking advantage of Greece’s diverse geography to replicate realistic mission environments. To ensure success, mission planners and aircrews worked closely with their Greek counterparts to build, brief, and execute tactical flight routes under both daylight and low-light conditions.
“The C-130 is a day and night, all-weather tactical airlift platform,” US Air Force Captain Chris Gallimore, the mission’s planning chief said. “Training in an environment like this gives us the repetition and realism we need to remain effective.”
