[2] 1100 soldiers from 14 countries took part in exercise, including 9 NATO members (Albania, Canada, Croatia, Greece, Hungary, Spain, Turkey, United Kingdom and the United States) and 5 PfP nations (Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Georgia and Ukraine).
Initially 18 countries were supposed to take part, but Armenia, Moldova, Serbia and Kazakhstan canceled their attendance in response to troop mutiny in Georgia.
Longbow is a Command Post exercise (CPX) and is focused on training and exercising NATO staff skills in order to improve interoperability between NATO and partner nations during crisis response operations at the multinational brigade level.
Lancer is designed to provide basic training on peace support operations at the battalion level.
Russia strongly opposed to the drills in Georgia, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev referred to them as "an open provocation" and said the exercises were assisting Georgia's rearmament after the conflict with Russia over South Ossetia.