Defence Secretary Grant Shapps has announced that in the first half of 2024, 20,000 service personnel from the Royal Navy, the British Army, and the Royal Air Force will deploy across Europe to take part in Exercise Steadfast Defender 24.
The exercises will see the UK’s Armed Forces join thousands of personnel from 31 NATO allies and Sweden, operating across multiple countries, coinciding with the NATO Alliance’s 75th year.
The following is an excerpt of this speech given by Shapps.
“If Putin thought we’d be distracted by the events in the Middle East then last week, because of the long-term decisions this government has taken, his hopes were surely dashed. In a complex world, no nation can afford to go it alone, so we must continue strengthening our alliances so the world knows they cannot be broken. Defence is in many ways the cornerstone of our relations across the world.
Our world leading Armed Forces, cutting-edge industrial base and willingness to support our allies is the reason why Britain is the partner of choice for so many. And among our partnerships, NATO remains pre-eminent. Seventy-five years after its foundation, today NATO is bigger than ever. But the challenges are bigger too.
That’s why the UK has committed nearly the totality of our air, land and maritime assets to NATO. But, in 2024, I am determined to do even more.
Which is why I can announce today that UK will be sending some 20,000 personnel to lead one of NATO’s largest deployments since the end of the Cold War, Exercise Steadfast Defender. It will see our military joining forces with counterparts from 30 NATO countries plus Sweden, providing vital reassurance against the Putin menace.
Our carrier strike group will be out in full force, with our magnificent flagship HMS Queen Elizabeth leading the way. And flying from her decks will be the fifth generation F35 lightning jets, accompanied by a fearsome phalanx of frigates, destroyers and helicopters. We’ll also have a submarine patrolling the depths, and one of our Poseidon P8 aircraft conducting surveillance from the skies above, and more than 400 of our brilliant Royal Marines will be training in the Arctic Circle, contending with some of the toughest environments anywhere on the planet.
On land, we’ll be deploying over 16,000 soldiers, led by our 7th Light Mechanised Brigade Combat Team which superbly led our recent response in Kosovo. All of which, makes this our largest deployment of land forces to NATO for 40 years.”
Here’s a breakdown of what is going where.
The Royal Navy:
- The Royal Navy will be deploying eight warships and submarines, and more than 2,000 sailors.
- A UK Carrier Strike Group, centred on a Queen Elizabeth Class aircraft carrier and her air group of F-35B Lightning jets and helicopters, and surrounded by escort frigates and destroyers, will operate as part of a potent naval force of allied warships and submarines in the North Atlantic, the Norwegian Sea and the Baltic Sea.
- More than 400 Royal Marines Commandos will be deployed to the Arctic Circle at the heart of an allied amphibious task group designed to land in the high north and defend the alliance in one of the world’s harshest environments.
The British Army:
- 16,000 troops from the British Army will be deployed across eastern Europe from February to June 2024, taking with them tanks, artillery, helicopters, and parachutes.
- There will be live fire manoeuvres, parachute jumps, an Army and Navy joint helicopter force, and Army Special Operations Forces on deployment.
- The British Army will deploy to test and strengthen the readiness of the UK’s land forces in defending NATO, and to bolster its ability to operate jointly with allied armed forces.
The Royal Air Force:
- The Royal Air Force will be making use of some of its most cutting-edge aircraft, including F35B Lightning attack aircraft and Poseidon P8 surveillance aircraft.
- The RAF will practice flying in simulated conflict scenarios against near-peer adversaries, proving its ability to deter and defend against threats.
It annoys the hell out of me when a muppet like grant Shapps goes from bragging about cuts to the forces on the same day as he sends men in to combat then then next day openly brags about how great our forces are.
I can only hope the people get a chance to vote on this clown and his boss soon.
“Watch this space”
100% agree
What did he say about cuts? I missed it.
It makes it sound like the Army can deploy 20k all at once, when in fact most of this will be small penny-packets. I think we’d struggle to deploy 10k with the proper equipment and support.
A large Warfighting Brigade ‘tops’ I would say.
Anything else would require Uncle Sam to fill the gaps.
Just glossing over the yawning gaps of obsolete/ not ordered equipment and manpower that drops by the month with a bit of fancy media PR and hopes the uninterested general public don’t notice…..
Perhaps ITV should do a drama about it, “Tommy Atkins verses the MOD”!
Definately. We desperately need an “Emperors new clothes” moment that wakes the public up to the atrocious weakness & mismanagement of our forces rather than swallowing every trite soundbite. The media at large has failed miserably to hold HMG & MOD to account.
Unfortunately Frank, we here are a tiny minority, the general public simply have absolutely no idea of defence matters in general don’t care.
The public have vey likely never heard of DE&S who appear to constantly lavish prizes and awards to their staff – often for “completing the delivery of (insert kit here) despite the difficult circumstances”. Those difficult circumstances usually involve the project being over budget and disastrously late. In 30 years of running a private company I can assure you that missed deadlines and overspent budgets were never met with prizes – rather more a straightforward sit down with explanations and reasons expected and a clear plan to prevent a repeat.
Hope we got the funding, billions lost in Iraq war! Cost of living crisis now! Massive pay outs in compensation for massive post office computer errors! May God bless us all.
Defence assumptions are for a division sized force 30,000 strong to be deployed in 6 months notice.
From what decade does that come from? The fighting strength of the whole army can’t be more than 30k. I was under the impression that we could maintain a brigade or two in the field, but a division no longer.
Depends how many brigades are in their Division! Divisions were always of 3 manoeuvre Brigades. The HQ and Logistic hub of the ARRC, so 104 Bde, 1 Sig Bde, plus 7 LMBCT, and bits and pieces of Field Army Troops do not a Division make. As it mentions tanks, artillery, parachuting, and helicopters, none of which apply to the above beyond 4RA ( 7 Bde ) makes one think elements of 12 or 20 Bde, DRSB, and 16AA are involved. It is a “Division” formed from scraping together disparate elements, not a cohesive whole from 1 formation like we had… Read more »
Oh Jim, I do love to start the week with a good joke….
We couldn’t do that with 6 years notice these days!
It would be funny if it wasn’t true….
Jim, where do you get that from? Few divisions these days are at 30k.
Jim, I think I have found where you got that figure of 30k. Fact Sheet 5 of Future Force 2020 – A new set of Defence Planning “Assumptions Summary of size, shape and structure The new Defence Planning Assumptions envisage that the Armed Forces in the future will be sized and shaped to conduct: • an enduring stabilisation operation at around brigade level (up to 6,500 personnel) with maritime and air support as required, while also conducting: • one non-enduring complex intervention (up to 2,000 personnel), and • one non-enduring simple intervention (up to 1,000 personnel); OR alternatively: • three… Read more »
Those 16k army bods are deploying ‘from Feb to June 2024′. Two ways of reading that – one is that we deploy 4k per month Feb to May inclusive – each tranche does a month and comes home, last tranche ENDEX-ing in June. Who knows? – detail is not Shapps’ strong suit.
This deployment will be essential in forging stronger bonds with other NATO forces. There is no doubt this whole endeavour is to deter Putin from further shenanigans.
The Bundeswehr is starting a major manuever this year, as well (Quadriga 2024), which is integrated into Steadfast defender.
Today, an A400 from UK landed in Paderborn, flew over my house in Hamm, NRW. Not that this is totally uncommon, but it is the first time I have seen such a flight in some time. Sennelager isnt far, and RAF Gütersloh is closed, so this is as close as it gets.
This nob jockey talks like he has just made that decision today as opposed the exercise was planned at least a year or so ago! Shapps is a typical professional politician, doesn’t give a shite what department he heads, as long as it gets him up the greasy pole of power!
Nob jockey, I like that 😀
No Nobs are useful. 🤣
Exactly the sort of guy we don’t want or need in power. Egomaniacs & lunes should be filtered out way back in candidate selection, but incompetence & evil gets way too far. The likes of Johnson, Truss & trump should never be allowed anywhere near power. We have a systematic ethical sickness in our democracy. The worst people rise to the top. That is what I mean by evil.
Why is it so hard for the brightest, best, most capable & good to get where they’re needed?
Because immorality rules the roost and those who have morals are a check upon themselves whereas the amoral are not. Vide Caesar: Laws are to be obeyed but one need not observe them in the case of a coup d’etat. Thankfully senators took his advice and plunged 23 daggers into the basted.
spot on……
Professional politician my rusty sheriffs badge.
A sponge has more integrity.
Please don’t attach the word Professional to Scrapps, it implies a level of trust worthy competence that he just doesn’t deserve.
Housing, Transport, Defence are all jobs that can’t lose votes, so they stick him there.
A professional criminal is still professional. It doesn’t confer any praise on the professioñ in question
20,000 is pobably all the combat really troops we have with such a tiny army, even understrength as it is.
I wish these muppets would stop grandstanding & posing, start spending properly on restoring our forces to where they need to be in such dangerous time & resolve the many isues we have with procurement, training & retention.
There’s no way that defence is getting more money this side of an election, and probably not afterwards unless NATO adopts a higher minimum target of GDP.
It will, unfortunately, take something bad to happen for the country to take notice and demand change. The loss of a T45 or T23 in the Red Sea, for example. I’m not for one moment hoping for that though.
If Labour get in , there will be another defence review and the type 32 will not happen, the third tranche of the F35B will be scrapped, the army will escape because there is nothing left to cut , the amphibious capacity will go and the type 45 replacement will be kicked into the long grass . Labour had not promised any extra money for defence , and its priorities are the NHS our national cult , the NHS will bankrupt public spending in the next ten years unless we accept a totally different way of funding it . In… Read more »
A horrifying prediction of Labour’s possible actions if they get in. But it has the awful whiff of dismal reality. Other things they might look at, sadly, is: scrapping the Red Arrows and/or Battle of Britain Memorial Flight; putting one carrier into Extended Readiness (ER); putting one LPD into ER (unless Shapps has already done that); reducing slightly the personnel numbers in the Falklands and Cyprus bases; merging the officer training establishments; reducing parachute training; cutting some Defence Diplomacy and/or MoD Head Office posts; cutting allowances again. Not saying I advocate any of the above, I don’t! Also, I am… Read more »
We currently pay £110 billion a year on the national debt, forecast to rise to £125 billion by 2027 .
We are actually borrowing money to pay the interest on the debt .
Current defence budget is £51 billion.
Thanks Tom. Truly horrifying. HMG definitely overspent during the Covid crisis. Much government borrowing to cover ballooning NHS and Welfare sectors. It will cost loads to fix the dodgy concrete problem in publicly owned buildings.
How can HMG end this spiral?
Blimey mate, steady on. When I talk like that it sets off certain people on here that I actually dare to be concerned by what Labour might do.
It amuses me that you get not a peep.
Thanks for the steadying message! I have a little more time for Healey than Shapps. Healey does try to learn his brief. He has not got a background of failed jobs, unlike Shapps. He does not come across as a ‘Yes man’.
But the money isn’t there for whichever party is in power by this time next year – and the public appetite for increased defence spending isn’t there.
More muddling through expected – a mix of more cuts offset by some shiny new equipment – and constant bragging that we spend over £50bn on defence.
That’s the key word…”defence”
It’s about time it was made clear in parliament and wider defence journalism what that means, and who benefits from it.
The military are only a part of it, and I’ve not belived for some time that they are the priority they should be.
The article clearly explains the numbers involved from the RN Army and the RAF.
“Troops”… Soldiers are troops, Sailors and Airforce crew are not normally referred to as Troops, but I get the point…
I agree. Politicians increasingly refer to ‘Troops’ as meaning service personnel from all 3 services – its just wrong.
Are these Schrödinger‘s RM delivered by teleportation?
They appear to need to be in several places at once?
With no Albions how do they get there with heavy equipment as a unit?
Bays ?
Snappie boy , is using a Virtual reality headset for this exercise by the looks of things as he’d get a shock if he was roo actually take part for real and I wonder if those taking part are being paid Local overseas allowance? Or has that gone the way of our armed forces Cut Down
I do wonder about the timing the German paper Bild is reporting that a leaked German Defence Document suggests Germany expects Russia to attack the Baltic states in the next 12 months.
So Russia wants a war with NATO then? General (ret’d) Shirreff write a fiction book on this in 2016.
I can’t see it happening unless NATO is severely weakened by US withdrawal under Trump.
20,000 British ‘Troops’ to be deployed to Europe… 4,000 ‘troops’ over a 12 month period, deployed 5 times, to make it seem like 20,000? 😂😅
Bring back conscription
We wouldn’t need a Rwanda policy
They would stop the boats at a stroke
Do British politicians have any idea just how this type of pretension is received outside of the bubble they live in?
PM today acting very up beat in parliament questions ,about the troubles in the red sea ,Israel , Ukraine .And defending out Defence budget of 2% and wanting it at 2.5% at some stage ,and reminding the house he’s put in extra money in the pot with a smile on is face ,who does he think he’s kidding no why nearer enough money .And to mention Grant shapps is looking into the future of the RM ,and wanting NATO members to pay more on Defence .Think he needs to look at what were doing and get it bloody right before… Read more »
All PR smoke and mirrors total bullshit.
My god we need a clean sweep with a stiff yard broom. Both Labour and the Conservatives are nothing more than interchangeable idiots.
That extra money vanished into AUKUS infrastructure, so Rainsway and Barrow, Ukraine kit, and inflation.
His grandstanding infuriates me.
He funds UK Industry, not the military.
This disposition of forces will stir Hitler’s ashes into unremitting laughter. Putin will just fart with pleasure at the exiguous numbers deployed. Is that what the UK mostly amounts to? A 20k army? What a joke.
20k deploying on an exercise is considered a lot these days. Of course the army is bigger than 20k.
Putin is so geopolitically and strategically ignorant that he invaded the only country on the whole European landmass that could fight him back, instead of invading the whole EU, which he would have pocketed inside 6 months. All he would have needed was a show of strength, a few pin point manoeuvres and a promise to Europeans to increase their minimum wage and send them no heating bills. And the Europeans would have either stood by idle or indeed helped him remove their own political power structures, en mass. But Putin is neither adroit nor savvy and he bumped his… Read more »