It ends today 2024 Steadfast Defender, NATO's largest live exercise in decades, following four months of intense training involving all allied nations.
The exercise, the first large-scale in which the new regional defense plans adopted at Vilnius Summit, saw the participation of over 90.000 military, more than 50 navibeyond 80 aircraft engaged in hundreds of sorties and more 1100 combat vehicles from the 32 NATO member countries.
The training focused on promoting operational readiness across all domains and at all levels of command, from strategic to operational to tactical.
Designed to train and demonstrate the Alliance's ability to reinforce continental Europe through the transatlantic movement of forces from North America and the United Kingdom, 2024 Steadfast Defender it included a series of NATO-led and nationwide exercises, which brought allied troops to operate together in an impressive display of unity and interoperability.
“Exercise Steadfast Defender demonstrated the incredible strength of the transatlantic bond between NATO Allies in Europe and those in North America”, said Supreme Commander Allied Forces Europe (SACEUR), General Christopher G. Cavoli. “The highly complex military activities conducted during this exercise demonstrated that this Alliance is capable and ready to carry out our critical collective defense mission.”
In the center of Steadfast Defender there was verification of the qualification and use of NATO and national forces in all domains and in the SACEUR Area of Responsibility. This reinforcement occurred during a simulated emergent conflict scenario against a peer opponent.
The exercise was performed in two parts. The first part was a live exercise focused on maritime operations that involved various headquarters exercising the strategic deployment of forces from North America to continental Europe. The second part was a multi-domain demonstration of NATO military capabilities, national and multinational, across continental Europe.
“During Steadfast Defender 2024, we coordinated, conducted and supported complex multi-domain operations over several months and across thousands of kilometres, from the High North to Central and Eastern Europe”, said Brigadier General Gunnar Bruegner, SHAPE's deputy chief of staff responsible for collective training and exercises. “The most important lesson is that complex exercises of this scale and ambition are essential to test our readiness, plans and concepts, and to maintain our operational coherence and unity.”
Exercises are critical tools through which the Alliance tests and validates its concepts, procedures, systems and tactics. Planned in advance and varying in scope, duration and form, NATO exercises prepare commands and forces for operations in times of peace, crisis and conflict, ensuring that the Alliance is ready to defend its populations whenever and wherever necessary, and in any conditions.
Photo: NATO
