NATO's largest exercise of the year, Steadfast Dart 25, begins – the first under the leadership of the new ARF
The largest North Atlantic Treaty Organisation exercise of the year, Steadfast Dart 25 (STDT25), began today under the command of the UK Armed Forces. Over 10,000 troops from nine NATO allies are conducting manoeuvres in Romania, Bulgaria and Greece until the end of February. This is the first exercise of this scale under the new Allied Reaction Force (ARF), which was created last year in response to the ongoing Russian aggression in Ukraine and the strengthening of the Alliance's eastern flank. The exercise will also involve hundreds of military vehicles, aircraft and ships.
This is the first major test of a relatively new structure within NATO - the Allied Reaction Force (ARF), which has only been in place since last summer and is the Alliance's direct response to the tense security situation in Europe. Now, the ARF, under British command, is conducting its first large-scale manoeuvres, and the largest this year.
More than 10,000 members of the Allied armies from the UK, Bulgaria, France, Greece, Italy, Romania, Spain, Slovenia and Turkey are deployed. According to official sources, the Czech Republic is not involved, but our sources say it is assisting with some of the tasks involved in the redeployment of the armies.
A large-scale simulation of a possible attack from the east will be conducted across the countries at the south-eastern end of the Alliance, namely Romania, Bulgaria and Greece, by land, sea and air until 26 February. The troops have at their disposal over 1 500 pieces of ground military equipment, including tanks, self-propelled howitzers, infantry fighting vehicles and armoured personnel carriers, 20 aircraft (including Eurofighter Typhoon and F-16 fighters) or the large Airbus A400M Atlas transport aircraft, as well as 17 vessels such as amphibious landing ships, frigates and submarines.
Video: Steadfast Dart 25 / YouTube
The British have the largest share of the exercise, sending over 2 600 people and more than 700 military vehicles, including Foxhound and Jackal vehicles. "Exercise Steadfast Dart demonstrates our unwavering commitment to NATO and underlines the UK's key leadership role in the Alliance," UK Deputy Defence Secretary Luke Pollard said in an official statement before the exercise began. "As we approach the three-year anniversary of Russia's illegal invasion of Ukraine, we must continue to strengthen our collective defences to effectively deter Putin," Pollard added.
Steadfast Dart 25 builds on previous major exercises, such as last year's Steadfast Defender 2024, and aims to improve coordination and overall cooperation across allies in the Alliance. In particular, the ability to rapidly deploy member armies and seamlessly deploy them together is central. NATO considers Russia to be a potential aggressor, and the Allied Reaction Force is designed to accelerate the process in the event that one of the Alliance members is attacked. NATO has set the upper limit for a full response at 10 days.
"Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, NATO responded by deploying highly prepared NRF elements in a deterrent and defensive role for the first time. Thousands of troops and various military assets were deployed in a high readiness corps within the NRF, ensuring the capability to defend NATO territory," wrote Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Stefano Pagani of the current Allied Reaction Force Command in Italy on the reasons for the creation of the ARF, referring to the NATO Response Force (NRF). "The Allied Reaction Force is a critical component of the new NATO force model that supports the concept of defence and deterrence. It is an entirely new concept that provides multi-component forces from across the Alliance to operate in a shorter time frame than previously possible. The creation of the ARF makes the force available to European headquarters, enabling rapid response to emerging situations across operations," Pagani added.
Last year, the Italians led the ARF during its first joint mission in late September in the Western Balkans region, where the allies trained and supported the NATO peacekeeping mission there, KFOR. As a result, by mid-October, 200 ARF personnel had been deployed in Kosovo and North Macedonia. This number includes the newly established Forward Command Node, which has been temporarily integrated into KFOR's command and control structures. It focused on identifying logistical and infrastructure requirements as well as operational support to the mission. The current exercise, Steadfast Dart 25, is then an incomparably larger event within the ARF's operations, and will be a real first major test for the Allied Response Force.
