Starting at the end of January and ending May 31, UK forces are set to join approximately 90,000 troops from all 31 NATO allies, as well as partner Sweden, for exercises called Steadfast Defender. The UK’s 7 Light Mechanised Brigade, also known as “The Desert Rats,” is en route to Poland to take part in the exercises. The largest deployment of the NATO alliance within Europe in 40 years will include approximately 600 vehicles, such as armoured vehicles, Land Rovers, and engineers’ tractors. They were loaded into MV Anvil Point, a 23,000-tonne cargo vessel, near Southampton on Tuesday. Some 1,500 service personnel will fly out to join the NATO exercises. NATO announced its intention to conduct Steadfast Defender last month, calling it “a significant display of military prowess” that allows the defence union to showcase “transatlantic unity, strength, and determination in the face of evolving security challenges.”
The exercises will be taking place in Finland, Estonia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Sweden, and the UK. More than 20,000 UK military personnel are expected to take part in exercises across northern Europe and Scandinavia. Exercises of this scale are planned years in advance and use fictitious scenarios to test and refine defence plans. The Desert Rats’ departure comes as Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Prince of Wales, which is leading the military maritime mission of 40 ally vessels, set sail. Commodore James Blackmore, commander of the UK Carrier Strike Group leading the HMS Prince of Wales, spoke of the UK’s unwavering commitment to NATO and collective deterrence and defence of the Euro-Atlantic region.
The ship’s departure from Portsmouth was supposed to take place on Sunday but remained in dock, prompting security minister Tom Tugenhat to express his dissatisfaction. The Ministry of Defence did not give a reason for the last-minute failure to sail. HMS Prince of Wales replaced its sister ship HMS Queen Elizabeth last week after a final inspection exposed a problem with the propeller shaft. Earlier this month the House of Commons Defence Committee warned that the UK’s ability to engage in a war was marred by the armed forces’ recruitment crisis and stockpile shortage. The committee’s inquiry revealed that the armed forces would exhaust their capabilities “after the first couple of months of the engagement” in a peer-on-peer war.