NATO’s largest set of military manoeuvres since the height of the cold war, Exercise Steadfast Defender, began in earnest for the British Army as the 23,000-tonne roll-on roll-off vessel, MV Anvil Point slipped her moorings at the Sea Mounting Centre in Marchwood near Southampton.

According to this British Army news release, loaded into the bowels of the ship and parked bumper to bumper on her upper decks were some 600 vehicles – the vanguard of the UK’s land forces that will eventually see some 19,000 British soldiers deploy across a 4.5k kilometre stretch of Europe from Norway’s high latitudes of the Arctic Circle through to Georgia in the Caucuses.

“This was the deployment of NATO’s Very High Readiness Joint Task Force’s (VJTF); in essence, the tip of the spear that would be the first weapon launched at any adversary threatening European security. The VJTF role currently falls to the British Army’s 7 Light Mechanised Brigade Combat Team, affectionately known as ‘The Desert Rats’ who assumed the role from the Germany Bundeswehr at the beginning of this year.

As the ship was being loaded in Marchwood, 1500 of those Desert Rats were boarding trooping flights at airports across the country en-route to Hannover in Germany and Szczecin in Poland. This was Exercise Brilliant Jump Two, just one of the eleven exercises taking place under the broader NATO Exercise Steadfast Defender series. 

Exercise Brilliant Jump, although despite its title involves no parachuting, was what is termed a deployex – a deployment exercise that tests the logistical challenge of sending overseas vast numbers of troops and vehicles at short notice and within exacting time frames. Once the troops are reunited with their vehicles in Sennelager, Germany, the VJTF is further bolstered by more European troops from four NATO allies and nations: among them a Spanish tank battalion, Albanian and North Macedonian infantry, and reconnaissance troops from Turkiye. All these units will converge onto the Drawsko Pomorskie training area in Poland, where they will join with a Polish tank battalion as the exercise transforms from the deployex of Brilliant Jump Two into Exercise Polish Dragon, another within Steadfast Defender.”

Brigadier Guy Foden, 7 Light Mechanised Brigade Combat Team’s Commander had this to say about his ‘Desert Rats’:

“With a significant quantity of main battle tanks, attack helicopters, infantry, artillery, air defence, drone capability, engineers and logistics, the brigade is a formidable fighting machine. It is the most powerful brigade I have seen in my 25 years in the Army. The brigade is ready to deploy wherever NATO need us; the Desert Rats are honoured to be leading NATO’s very high readiness forces. We stand shoulder to shoulder with our allies and partners ready to defend our freedoms.”

You can read more on this here.

Lisa West
Lisa West
Lisa has a degree in Media & Communication from Glasgow Caledonian University and works with industry news, sifting through press releases in addition to moderating website comments.

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32 COMMENTS

  2. Hi folks hope all is well.
    Very impressive and all credit as usual to our magnificent military and professionalism!
    As ever I ask you experts on this sight to inform me.
    If this were an emergency say a pre-military potential engagement with Russia. Would we place so much personnel and equipment in one large vessel? Or would the UK military fragment into several routes to deploy and regroup at a specific point?
    Cheers,
    George

    • I wonder if you could use the channel tunnel to get them over to France and then move everything in smaller formations to the front.

      You could probably stick auxiliary trucks and vechicles on the car trains already used in the tunnel. Put the wider and heavier vechicles like tanks and artillery on flat bed carrages. At least for a good proportion of the journey it’s underground and relatively safe.

      • Hopefully assets would be dispersed on Albions and Bays as well.

        There are three Points(?) currently in service…..there were four.

        But I agree anything is a point of aggregation and therefore vulnerability needs a cold hard look!

      • Some stuff could just be loaded into freight wagons and sent that way. The problem with rail is that it is very fixed and very known.

        IRL the points can be loaded at any commercial dock.

        I suspect in times of real tension that some soft, without bits that go bang, vehicles would end up going in cross channel ferries.

        Also think that commercial cargo planes could be used for some bits and there are loads of cargo 747’s around.

        Multiplicity is the key.

      • The army railway capability was almost completely erased in the 2010 cuts bar an reservist STRE, though we still have railway access at several MoD sites and MoD stuff is still moved by rail.
        It is a capability I’d like to see restored.
        The issue for me is not the underground tunnel part but protecting the portals at either end. Blow them and your train is stuck.

        • I’m sure many rail workers would wake up one morning to find they have been vetted in their absence, (even medical records are digitised on line these days) summoned and conscripted. A MOD Plod or civi plod waiting outside with dog tags and ID card. 💂💂💂💂🏃.

      • It was on 17/1/17, that the movement of military vehicles through the Chunnel was exercised. A Warrior was loaded at Ludgershall, and a Warrior recovery vehicle along with a Challenger tank, ‘matching recovery vehicle’ and a reconnaissance vehicle were loaded at Folkestone, Kent.
        Source: Huffington Post 19/1/17.

      • Not advisable my friend. Safe you say, in a confined space under water! Try to think like an opponent in the build-up to attacking their sworn enemy. What would you do to known logistical routes an enemy will likely use for troop and logistical transport?

        By the time you have thought about it, assessed the threat, decided what to do and issued orders. A professional enemy trained to think that way, has already stolen the initiative and done it! 🕵

          • Our lads would do their best as always. But we have so few MBTs, with no way to replace losses in combat. It’s arguable if they would have an impact. The inventers of the tank and the best armour in the world Dorchester. Would need to go begging to the US and Germany, to buy tanks at top book price. Let that sink in for a while Graham.

    • Hi George, there are many of us with the same first name in the comment section.

      You are correct to assume the reported packed transport vessel is a peacetime convenience. Only a fool would present a watchful 21st C. enemy such a tempting target. During the last Cold War we had the BAOR predeployed in West Germany, dispersed but ready to blunt any Warsaw Pact incursion into NATO territory. Along with blocks of equipment prepositioned in various locations across the channel. Awaiting even more allied troops from our island stronghold. Our American allies had their equivalent. As we progress in this new cold war you can be sure something similar will evolve. With numerous well protected modes of transport utilised, as unpredictably as possible.

      There is an old but very well authored novel by Tom Clancy, called Red Storm Rising. Available free as an audiobook on YouTube. It skilfully narrates a well researched but fictitious account of what could have happened had the last cold war turned hot. It will give you the basics of how the military go about their true role when called upon. It’s old, the weapons used are mostly out of date but the principles of armed conflict do not change much. Remember, every soverign nation needs two things. Secure borders and a strong enough armed force to defend them. Along with it’s over seas territories, protectorates and national interest wherever they happen to be. Toodle pip George and thank you for your respectfully worded question.

      FYI – An ex denotes a previous state of being, a has been. A spurt, is a drip under pressure. Be careful who you call an ex-spurt. 😆😂😊

  3. These Point Class are brilliant vessels. Hope in time of conflict they can have some Podded or palletised Phalanx’s or 30mm, and maybe LMM/ Starstreak for protection.

    • Have you seen the fully self contained systems built into shipping containers. They don’t even need the big ones. It’s almost a matter of plugging them into the ships power outlet and pressing C:run ENTER. Then watching them self calibrate. Hopefully these things are being ordered in sufficient numbers to be of use. Oops, I forgot, we are talking about MOD semi trained equal opportunity procurement sloths. 😡

  4. I’m confused, all the UK politicians and defence folk making alarmist statements about hot war with Russia being a possibility yet the UK’s VJTF 2024 deployment is a joke?!
    Leading the “tip of the spear” without (any?) armour at all as far as I can tell, no air defence either it seems..
    It’s just like the AFP “reenforcement” the UK announced – exclusively a paper exercise, no additional unit was deployed… But don’t worry, a battalion is being held in Britain at high readiness..

    I mean come on! It’s mindblowing how vast the gap between words and actions are on this, and yet it’s staying entirely under the radar, almost like the media is covering for the government – at least for the domestic audience..

    I wonder what other NATO forces are thinking though, they surely will have noticed..

    • VJTF is a formation drawn from many NATO nations, with a single nation as lead and providing core framework. It is currently configured as a medium-weight force because it is more serious a statement than lightweight but is quickly deployable – tanks and other heavy AFVs are not as quickly deployed from the UK. NATO HQ is clearly content that VJTF 2024 has no MBTs in it.

      Its purpose is not to fight an enormous invading Russian army on its own. It is a political signal of resolve and intent at a time of ‘crisis’. It paves the way for the ‘main body’.

      I agree that AD should be part of its composition.

      AFP? That passed me by. Please could you explain or point to a reference.

    • Elements of 12/20 Armoured Brigades are taking part in the wider NATO exercise.
      7 LMB does not include tanks in its ORBAT.

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