NATO has begun its largest military exercise of 2026, Steadfast Dart, with allied forces deploying across Central Europe as part of a major test of the Alliance’s rapid reaction capability, according to NATO.
The exercise was officially launched on 15 January by Allied Command Operations and marks the first deployment of the Allied Reaction Force within the area of responsibility of Joint Force Command Brunssum. Around 10,000 service personnel from 11 nations are taking part. Participating Allied Reaction Force units come from Bulgaria, Czechia, Germany, Greece, Italy, Lithuania, Spain and Türkiye, with additional personnel from Belgium, France and the United Kingdom linking national training activities to the exercise.
NATO said Steadfast Dart is intended to demonstrate the operational and strategic capabilities of the Allied Reaction Force and supporting units, integrating land, air, maritime, space, cyber and special operations forces in a multi-domain environment. The exercise is being conducted in two main phases. A deployment phase began earlier this month, followed by a training phase scheduled to start next month. Both phases are set within a simulated conflict scenario involving a near-peer adversary, designed to test the Alliance’s ability to deploy and sustain forces across multiple locations in Central Europe.
Germany will host a significant portion of the activity, where Steadfast Dart will transition directly into Quadriga, a major German national exercise, according to NATO. U.S. Air Force General Alexus G. Grynkewich, Supreme Allied Commander Europe, said: “Last year, Steadfast Dart incorporated the first deployment of NATO’s new Allied Reaction Force, demonstrating Allied Command Operations’ ability to respond at a moment’s notice to an emergent threat to our Alliance.”
He added: “This year’s exercise builds upon that success and will again demonstrate NATO’s responsiveness, as well as its strength, in what will arguably be one of NATO’s most visible exercises this year, with forces on the land, at sea, and in the air, who will operate in all domains.”
The exercise has been planned over the past two years by Joint Force Command Brunssum in close coordination with Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe.
General Ingo Gerhartz, Commander of Joint Force Command Brunssum, said: “Steadfast Dart 2026, NATO’s largest exercise of 2026, shows that the Alliance can act swiftly, stand united, and respond decisively under the leadership of Joint Force Command Brunssum—exactly when it matters most.”
He added: “With Exercise Steadfast Dart, we are demonstrating that NATO’s Allied Reaction Force toolbox contains every capability needed to react to any threat.”
This is fake news, no way anyone in Eastern Europe can make a deployment of this size without the US providing logistics, most of you have probably not noticed but the US has massive army of trucks and trains running round Europe moving all the military kit for everyone. European armies can’t possible fight in their own boarders without US logistics.
🇺🇸🫡
In other news interesting statements coming out from France now on Ukraine intelligence. Apparently 2/3rds of the intelligence being shred with Ukraine comes from French satellites now providing both EO and EM surveillance.
Jim are entire modern society and economy is built around logistics, and Europe is arguably the best in the world at it. Therefore fighting within our own borders it will not be an issue. As the Ukrainians are showing modern civilian transport infrastructure is more then capable of sustaining the needs of a military. It’s only in the last few kilometres that you want a military specific vehicle for transport. Otherwise your tesco delivery vehicle painted with B&Q budget friendly matt Green is just as capable, if not more so, of moving stores from Warminster to Lublin then a Man SV.
Harry, Jim is having a joke. No nation lacks military cargo trucks. We don’t need to borrow civvy trucks and paint them green.
There might be some tucks involved but I hardly think the US Army is controlling the European train network!
Posters missed your sarcasm and meaning, Jim.
I didn’t.
Ok ok I’m old!!
But experienced mate.. 👍
Dunno about that🤔despite drinking NATO standard tea/coffee(no sugar now) I was told I didn’t know how NATO worked!
😀
you should always end comments like these with the reddit ” /s” to indicate its sarcasm 😉
Hopefully no one from the American colony is involved we need to be self-sufficient in everything. Once we are, if we are, then the American Emperor will throw a tantrum that we are not playing with him or buying enough of his toys. Mark Carney is correct though, the genie is out of the bottle and will never go back, the American colony will never ever be trusted friends again regardless of which party is in power. Sadly the country that is being the slowest on the uptake is the UK, the only country in Europe of any substance that rather than hugely increasing defence spending is actually facing under funding and possible cutbacks. Ed Miliband has shaken the money tree and claims to have found £15 billion for subsidised heat pumps yet defence spending increases will have to wait 5 years. We’re doomed…..do you hear what I say…..we’re doomed.
Italy, Germany and Spain are the big contributors, then Greece, Czechia, Lithuania, Bulgaria, and Turkyie, with the UK France and Belgium supporting.
Agree, time to boot the US out of Europe and the UK totally. Give the Orange Clown a dose of his own. There is only Carney and Napoleon making the right noises, and the Nordics.
I was taken to task elsewhere about my views on the US the other day. I reminded a very younger person about Noraid and US interference and support for Provos. Three weeks ago, they kidnapped Maduro. Biden left Kabul to the Taliban after Nato answered the call after 9/11 and lost hundreds of European soldiers…. Finally? The US MIC screws other countries over, has done for decades. Time to shop elsewhere.
Suez. ‘Nuff said.
Yup
A USAF General is SACEUR and the exercise was planned in close coordination with Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe.
Sounds like at least one person from the American colony was involved..
Basically ENATO taking over and getting back in shape
Sweden’s former Prime Minister Carl Bildt said on the BBC this morning that a European ‘NATO’ (without the US) would take ten years to evolve. Don’t think we have ten years to spare.
37% of the US public does not believe Evolution is real. Maybe we should take a page out of their book and intelligently design or even create ENATO, rather than let it evolve.
Crab… I don’t see how ENATO would take 10 years to get used to being without the US and functioning adequately – so much is in place and would not need much adjustment. If however Bildt means that ENATO would have to replicate the amount of men and materiel hitherto coming from the US thats a different matter.
Exactly, these “figures” are nonsense. ENATO can take Russia on tomorrow. The boarder states alone like Finland and Poland have massive militaries. How could the Russians hold Murmansk and st Petersburg when they are within artillery range of NATO forces.
The US has only 80,000 solders are four fighter squadrons in Europe. That’s not significant for a continent with over 2 million solders and several thousand combat aircraft.
Europe needs America if it wants to fight in the gulf or Asia. It has no need of the US to fight in Europe on land against a third rate army like Russia that was stopped in its tracks by a small country like Ukraine (small in people not land)
Jim. ENATO needs the US because although it has large forces, they are not set up or structured to function without the US. The biggest challenge ENATO would face is working out command and control and how to fund and raise the sort of specialist capabilities a large scale force like the US has can easily generate, but gets lost in the cracks when you are dealing with 30 small militaries.
The US Army has roughly 450,000 active duty troops and about 328,000 in the Army national guard in total. There are only 100,000 thousand US Army active duty troops stationed in Europe. ENATO can generate 1.4 million active duty troops, the number of reserve troops would number in the thousands, so European forces already out number US forces in The European theatre.
In terms of tanks, NATO countries outnumber US forces, 6,000 tanks compared to 4,600 US tanks stationed globally
I think that NATO countries in Europe would be able to manage quite well if the US was to withdraw its forces.