"During this exercise, we practiced countering the threat associated with small-unit tactics against the air base as well as a drone attack against the air base," said Lt. Col. Maanus Nigul, commander of Ämari Air Base.

"We may not necessarily know that the enemy is already on the ground," Nigul continued. "In this case, we used a scenario in which the enemy has reached the ground surrounding the base."

Declared Wednesday by the Estonian government, the latest Okas snap exercise marked the third such extraordinary reservist training exercise called to date this year. The exercise was focused on air base defense, a unit readiness check and training.

More than 200 summoned EDF reservists practiced air base defense over the three-day exercise, with active service members from a base defense unit playing the role of the attackers.

Summoned reservists were ordered to report by the next morning. One called-up reservist from Central Estonia had given notice that they wouldn't make it in time, however they nonetheless reported for the third and final day of the exercise.

Nikita Groznov, an EDF company medic from Tallinn, had an easier time reporting in time. Nonetheless, he was unable to report last time he had been summoned.

"I'm from Tallinn, then, and I reported exactly on the date and time noted in the orders," Groznov said. "The first time I had a fairly large and weighty project to manage, so I sought permission from EDF leadership to participate in the project and was granted authorization [to do so]."

In addition to snap exercises, the EDF also regularly calls up reservists to participate in various other, planned exercises such as Siil and Kevadtorm (Spring Storm) with advance, 120-day warning.

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