Slovakia, an American and NATO ally, faces significant challenges to their sovereignty by foreign disinformation. To address this and deter aggression on NATO’s eastern boundary, US soldiers are working hand-in-hand with the Slovak military. Earlier this year, a US Army team working within the nation identified the need to bring together NATO partner forces to discuss regional challenges, threats, and disaster/emergency response capabilities during an SoA-sponsored conference. As a result of the exchange, the US military organizers and their Slovak partners determined that one of the biggest challenges the forces faced was a lack of modern audio/visual production and editing capability within Slovakia’s civil-military units. Without a basic digital media production capability, the Slovak Army lacks the ability to efficiently disseminate critically important information to the civilian population during life-threatening man-made and natural disasters.

US and Slovakian soldiers have deployed together around the world. They train together on a variety of skills, including civil-military cooperation, strategic communications, and basic rifle marksmanship.

On January 1, 1993, Slovakia declared independence from the Czechoslovak Federation on amicable terms in what is known as the “Velvet Divorce”, and later joined the NATO alliance on March 29, 2004. For the last 13 years, Slovakia has been a close ally of the US, taking several actions to assist American military efforts including deploying units to support demining and other operations in both Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan.

Weighing heavily on the minds of American decision makers and our regional allies are recent events in Ukraine, Slovakia’s eastern neighbor, which demonstrate the severity of threats posed within the region. This project assuages those concerns by addressing critical capability gaps to increase Slovakia’s deterrence posture, preventing potential spillover of conflict into NATO borders. It also allows military personnel to further mitigate risks to their civilian population and deliver lifesaving information and assistance in the event of an emergency, reinforcing their commitment to addressing societal needs. Furthermore, this project will help build the capacity of an important US-NATO ally as we work side-by-side to mutually defend our respective nation’s sovereignties.

With your help, SoA will provide the equipment needed to strengthen the relationship between the US soldiers serving in Slovakia and their local partners. This will not only improve stability in the region, but also help ensure this key NATO partner and, by extension, the United States, remain safe, secure, and free.