The UK is set to increase its military footprint at NATO headquarters in Brussels, with seven additional posts to be added to the International Military Staff over the next three years, the Ministry of Defence has confirmed.
In a written answer to Parliament, Defence Minister Al Carns said the expansion reflects the UK’s continuing role as one of NATO’s largest contributors of personnel, with British staff deployed across more than twenty-one countries in support of the Alliance. Responding to questions from Conservative MP James Cartlidge, the minister said the additional posts would strengthen the UK’s presence within NATO’s International Military Staff at a time of heightened security pressures across Europe.
“The UK is one of the largest contributors of personnel to NATO, underlining our commitment to deterrence and defence of the Euro-Atlantic Area,” Carns said.
Under current plans, the UK will increase its footprint within the International Military Staff by seven posts by the end of the decade, with the first increase scheduled for March 2026. Figures provided by the Ministry of Defence show that the number of UK military personnel based at NATO headquarters has remained broadly stable over the past five years, with modest growth in recent years.
Between the 2021–22 and 2025–26 financial years, the total number of UK military staff at NATO HQ fluctuated between 44 and 50 personnel. As of the current financial year, 46 UK military staff are based in Brussels, rising to 47 in March 2026. The breakdown shows that the UK Delegation has remained largely constant at around 20 to 21 personnel throughout the period, while staffing within NATO’s International Military Staff has varied more significantly, peaking at 29 in 2024–25 before falling back to 25 this year.
Alongside military personnel, the UK also deploys civilian staff from the Ministry of Defence to NATO headquarters. Civilian numbers declined from 15 in 2021–22 to a low of 10 in 2023–24 and 2024–25, before rising slightly to 12 in the current financial year.
Hegseth, the inebriate US Secretary of Defence (War), has announced that the US will eliminate roughly 200 senior positions from the NATO entities that oversee and plan the alliance’s military and intelligence operations.
Now we know what was plotted between Trump and the war criminal Putin during their infamous 40 minute private conversation in Trump’s limo in Alaska. The break-up of NATO, America’s withdrawal from Europe and the capitulation of Ukraine to Putin’s demands
I’ve asked this before, but what exactly is the hold that Putin has over Trump?
Good, replace them with European & Canadian ones, we need to start planning on a future NATO without US involvement.
NATO will still be there if the US goes, we should be using the removal of every US base from Europe in negotiations with Russia, maybe that’s a way out for Putin in his unwinnable war.
He has nothing over Trump, it’s that section of the American right that adore Putin, so called Christian strongman defending it against woke moral decay, fighting the globalists, millions of them were in awe two years ago when Tucker Carlson was showing his dumb viewers that Moscow is so advanced you can put a coin in a shopping trolley to use it at a supermarket. They think Europe doesn’t have that and Is lost and needs saving. And ultimately Trump, Miller and Vance etc are envious of Putin invading a sovereign country and trying to expand, it’s what they want to do, they’re bloodthirsty imperialists. They will be privately seething that Europe stood up to them and never handed over Greenland.
Fewer soldiers, fewer aircraft and fewer ships in UK military service, but a bigger presence at HQ! That’s good!!! Shows we are pulling our weight, and it should assuage European doubts about UK military spending!
It makes a great deal of sense for us to up our NATO contingent. NATO was created by Britain, initially as a way to pull the US into European security but now we need it as the backbone of the middle powers.
The UK is no super power however we are the only nation that possesses a full spectrum war fighting capability and has experience in deploying and fighting forces at divisional level and above.
While lots of commentators will want to see us dramatically increase the size of the army to fend off Russia we must accept that ENATO is not short on soldiers, tanks and artillery, but without the USA it will be short on nuclear weapons, command and control and space assets.
We can afford to provide those at scale but we can’t do that and rebuild the BAOR.
If the US won’t leave NATO then we need to build new alliance with in the existing one. We should expand the JEF to include Poland, Germany and Canada and look at our own nuclear weapons sharing agreement with JEF countries and together rapidly deploying a tactical nuclear cruise missile. We should perhaps even change the name of JEF to ENATO.
Does the UK totall forfil its NATO comitments? or does bluff it it, send 700 its will make no diffrence. Yes i am deeply negative as its more of the same spend more on less to do less with less. Yet say we can do more when we can’t.
The UK meets all its NATO commitments in spending and pledged forces.
Ha ha pull the other one, Prove it, so with no AWAC’s, 14 155mm guns, only 2 MLRS that can fire GPS ammo, we gave the other 6 away, Ajax not working, CVRT scrapped, One Attack sub working, we send an Armoured Div in the fiels fully equiped with Armoured vehicles not wheeled light crap that will get people killed and low 155MMAmmo, low ATGM’s ammo, C2 tank ammo not being made any more, please fully enlighten me, dying to hear this
Nice to see our lethality being increased with a few more laptop wielding HQ types. Any meaningful increase in spending and capability is constantly booted down the road and will be booted further in time. IF and it’s a huge IF the Ukraine war ends and the situation stabilises you just know that this so called surge in defence spending will reduce to an even smaller drip than it already is. Peace in our time will be declared, Trump will a bad memory and the world will return to how it was until it all goes to crap again and we are unprepared again.