alLINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — About 60 Nebraska soldiers are participating in a multinational military training exercise in Sweden.

Nebraska Army National Guard members spent Thursday parachuting onto an island in the Baltic Sea, conducting surveillance and reporting their opponents’ activities.

The soldiers face a language barrier as they work side-by-side with Swedish soldiers on the island of Gotland, but that’s one of the goals. Soldiers are learning to work through such challenges together through Aurora 17, a massive military training exercise involving nearly 20,000 troopers from eight countries.

Maj. Gen. John Gronski, deputy commanding general for the Army National Guard in Europe, says the exercises help highlight challenges and find ways to overcome them. The mission is also to help Sweden learn to better defend its borders.

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