File:NATO Exercise Steadfast Defender 2024 AHQCPL4-OFFICIAL-20240229-018-006.jpg

English: Images from the Queens Own Gurkha Logistic Regiment Ammo Stores on Ex Steadfast Defender, Drawsko Pomorskie Training Area (DPTA), Poland. 16,000 British soldiers are taking part in the largest set of NATO multi-national military manoeuvres in generation. Exercise Steadfast Defender will see these troops deploy across the entirety of Europe’s eastern flank, stretching from the far north of Norway, inside the Arctic Circle, all the way down to Georgia in the Caucasus’s. The British Army will be at the very forefront over the 5-month duration of Exercise Steadfast Defender, underpinning its position not only as the leading NATO European member state, but also one of its most potent. To put that into perspective; the Army is committing a 3* Headquarters, as well as two 2* Divisional and three 1* Combat Brigade Headquarters. These deployed formations will test, evaluate, and prove our ability to integrate and operate alongside our partners and allies, strengthening that collective and sustained commitment to European security. Along with those 16,000 troops, the UK will be sending massed armour including main battle tanks across to Europe aboard Ro-Ro vessels and loaded onto trains through the Channel Tunnel. Paratroopers will fly in from UK bases to seize strategic objectives and link up with NATO allied forces. Exercise Steadfast Defender will run from January through to May and comprise of 11 individual exercises in which British forces will participate alongside our NATO allies and partners.