NATO’s Allied Reaction Force (ARF) has demonstrated its combat readiness in Exercise Steadfast Dart, reinforcing the alliance’s commitment to defending its borders.
Speaking at the event, Admiral Stuart B. Munsch, Commander of NATO’s Joint Force Command, declared:
“Leading this exercise in 2025, the Allied Reaction Force is a strategic high-readiness, multi-domain, and multinational war-fighting team that can be deployed immediately at the direction of the Supreme Allied Commander Europe.”
The large-scale military exercise took place at the Smârdan training area in Romania, just 16 miles from the Ukrainian border. It featured nine NATO nations working together in a combined arms battle, showcasing land, air, and armoured capabilities.
The highlight of the exercise included:
- Spanish AV8-B jets conducting overhead strikes.
- Attack helicopters providing close air support.
- Romanian TR85 main battle tanks engaging enemy positions.
- British 4 SCOTS infantry storming enemy trenches with live fire.
The final moment of the exercise was marked by a symbolic display of unity, as a lone Scottish piper emerged from the smoke, playing bagpipes in front of massed NATO forces.
The British Army is adapting to conventional warfare, shifting from counterinsurgency to large-scale peer-on-peer combat.
Lieutenant Colonel Gordon Muir, Commanding Officer of 4 SCOTS, reflected on this shift:
“It is a mixture of remembering old lessons; the infantry has always had to dig in at some point or another to hold a defensive position. What we are seeing from a Ukrainian perspective is this on multiple social media forums. Unfortunately, conflict now looks a lot like it did 100 years ago.”
Meanwhile, The Royal Scots Dragoon Guards (SCOTS DG) took part in the exercise as part of the ISTAR Battlegroup (Intelligence, Surveillance, Target Acquisition, and Reconnaissance), using Jackal vehicles to provide battlefield intelligence.
“Proving that we are rapidly deployable and can sustain ourselves in the environment which we may be required to fight absolutely gives us that confidence we can endure the conditions here,” said Lieutenant Colonel Ben Parkyn, SCOTS DG Commanding Officer, in a British Army news update.
The exercise took place in the Focșani Gate, a strategically crucial corridor between the Carpathian Mountains and the Black Sea. Control of this area has historically been contested by various powers, and it remains a key defensive chokepoint for NATO.
With NATO reinforcing both the Suwalki Gap and the Focșani Gate, the alliance is making clear its readiness to defend every inch of its territory against any potential threat.
the Americans are not trustworthy anymore, great respect for their soldiers, but the government is clueless, this has all the signs of the 1929 Great depression..America is heading there and it’s going to drag everyone down with it
US admiral to be fired soon.
The Head of the US Coastguard (one of the 5 armed services) and also the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs (CDS-equivalent) have already been fired.
Yes, if only it was up to the admiral to decide US policy. I’m not massively concerned by either Russia or China as any threat they pose is limited. I’m currently far more concerned about the US which if it wants to be is the most dangerous country in the world.
I’m hoping Elon sorts that out soon with his Pentagon “efficiency” savings.
Watching Republican senators chant USA,USA in congress had a very Zeich Heil feel to it.
Military aggression is the least of our worries. The US actively funding far right parties and breaking down consumer protection laws in Europe to enable exploitative Corporate and Evangalist policies to be forced into our markers is far more likely atm.
Makes a change from the active funding of far left groups and causes. Not just the US either, who do you think is behind most of the fashionable causes and luxury beliefs that are rotting the West from within? All China and Russia need are corruptible or willing dupes. Sadly there are plenty of these across the developed world.
The Chief of Naval Operations has also been fired, so that’s two service chiefs down.
unfortunately it is not the admiral’s decision. Agent Orange is the one that decides
Maybe the Admiral can get a bit of regime change in the US.
Wouldn’t believe a word any American military person says until Trump is removed from the White House and the next US government makes a clear statement rejecting Putin, and fully confirming all NATO commitments.
He will have just been parroting his official OP briefing.
“Spanish AV8-B jets conducting overhead strikes” interests me as I wonder how effective GR9’s would still be for the air support role?
Sure, the GR9 is not a patch on an F35B but in the more basic role as an Apache adjunct lobbing 250 and 500kg laser guided bombs at the unwary it did have a considerable utility.
The GR9 would still have a place as its ability to operate from an austere makeshift airfield is unparalleled. After all the weak link of all fixed wing capabilities is the fact they are chained to 3000 feet of runway.
If you have been reading the “discussions” that talk of fact the US has the ability to turn off many aspects of the F35 as it communicates back to Lockheed Martin’s HQ. If that happens, those who were “discussing” it, were saying they cannot take off under those circumstances. I was under the impression that the UK’s F35 and Israeli I35’s had independent data systems that do not rely on LM or US-linked software.
Does anyone know the truth or facts?
Waiting for the exercise whereby everything is in place and then US political support is removed and then US assets and then troops are removed followed by a bill for costs already incurred and tariffs
We and the Europeans need to get our act together and fast or everything and everyone that is good about the USA wake up to Trump and Putin’s brave new world and act honourably. Nonetheless that only buys some more time.
There must be a huge cadre of American patriots in the military and intelligence services who are aghast at the sudden change of direction by their political masters, the abandonment of allies, the trade wars on friends, the complete surrender to Russia.
Only today we learn that the US is suspending all intelligence sharing with Ukraine on top of stopping military aid. Too bad that Iran , North Korea and China aren’t suspending aid to Russia. Trump doesn’t want peace, he just wants to throw Ukraine under the bus as many of us suspected. Nothing America says can be trusted anymore.
Those Kremlin staffers must be really annoyed that Donald Trump keeps winning ‘Employee of the Week ‘ award.
RAF Rivets have been gathering intel off the coast of Ukraine almost since the war started. I guess they will be passing on information to the Ukrainians even now and hope they will continue to do so, despite Trump’s tantrums.
Putin must be splitting his sides, laughing…
George, can I change my name to, “A random countryman,” in ADVANCE of necessity?
I feel sorry for the American soldiers. Policy is made by politicians is the iron rule of western democracies. But what if you have a Russian traitor as President?
‘The British Army is adapting to conventional warfare, shifting from counterinsurgency to large-scale peer-on-peer combat’.
An interesting comment, and perhaps misleading. For the years that the British Army was on Op HERRICK, only the 5 or 6 thousand soldiers there, from just a single brigade, were doing COIN. The rest of the army was training in their established role.
I think it is a misconception that the entire army only did COIN up to 12th Deecmber 2014.
Perhaps, but a lot of emphasis had shifted away from warfighting against peers. When I joined so many exercise scenarios where built around working out of FoBs, med was all about the golden hour and MERT coming in on chinook. Maybe only 5-6k where in Afghan at any one time, but so much of the Armies planning and training muscle memory had grown from Afghan assumptions, and there was a definite “No we need to get back to being comfortable with peer wars” attitude that was heavily pushed in the late 2010s.
It resulted in a shit load of spending on kit used in that COIN role, kit that’s now of limited use, at the expense of providing kit for a conventional fight eg Challenger fleets being run down and modernisation being continously delayed.
This affected the army as a whole and we are still living with the consequences of this.
hope he enjoys retirement. Seriously though, where the hell is the USA headed ?
I see nothing but a bloody civil war at this rate.
A civil war with who? People who don’t know what a woman is? Perhaps illegal immigrants who don’t want to go back where they belong? Purple haired socialists and commies at the university? No there will not be a civil war anytime soon. Attend to reality.
Christ Elliot….. A Civil War in the USA….. Please pay attention to what is happening in the Colonies (Again) Are you off grid ?
I live in the US, and again who do you see as likely candidate for the foot soldiers of a leftist/internationalist civil war against the Federal Government?
Out of interest Elliot, what do you think a woman is?
An adult human female. Biology is only hard when you are mentally challenged. Playing make believe and trying to get everyone to agree with your mental illness is laughable.
Ah so you don’t understand biology. It’s not simple, but that’s okay.
Adult Human Female, cool Transwomen are female so by your own definition they are women. Thanks for that.
No they are not. They are men in drag. I suggest you go spend time on a farm and learn animal husbandry.
Perhaps the people who don’t want to be ruled by a Russian controlled oligarchy. You know, the people who still believe in the land of the free and the home of the brave. Not the land of the dictator and the home of the fragile and dumb.
You clearly don’t know how civil war or even how violence works. The most patriotic all-American people you will meet and who are by far and away the people who disproportionately serve in the military and police do not care about foreign adventures. The most hilariously thing about this point of view of yours is that you genuinely think that Russia controls the vote of nearly 80 million people. Now go wave your Ukrainian flag and volunteer to serve in the killing fields of Eastern Europe. Whatever you do though stop volunteering people you obviously despise to do your killing for you.
Well by your constant deflection and gaslighting and repeating of Kremlin talking points you’re showing that Russian propaganda influenced your vote. Any thanks or thoughts for the people you obviously despise who died in America’s middle Eastern wars ? Because no American is being asked to do any killing, or ever has been by Europe.
Your side is the one demanding ever more escalation and anyone who disagrees is a Russian bot, nazi, fascist or whatever other term you believe.
Sending NATO ground and air forces to “enforce peace” would mean a war. That inevitably would mean the countries involved invoking article 5. Make no mistake that is what the Ukrainians are asking for when they say “backstops” and “security guarantees”.I have little interest in sending Texans and West Virginians to die so Macron, Starmer etc can feel better about themselves.
Also asking Americans to do your killing for is the whole principle of NATO.
Right trash loons talking about “reality” as if they have a clue what it means 🤡🤣
You lost the last Civil War and you’re gonna lose the next one too. All the manly gibberish spewed by the Coward in Chief will mean nothing when the fighting starts.
Again who would we the combatants be in a civil war? Name one individual group of individuals who could realistically challenge the military and the security state? The idea is laughable when consider the left is in general disarmed and looks only to impose it’s will by the same aforementioned government.
Be
There is no left in the US, only right and even further right!
Delusional comment. Where do you think woke ideology, DEI etc etc originated from? Study the Democrats and see who will take the reins once the current leadership dies off.
Russia
Nah, not Russia. Just not brainwashed.
You are so repetitive and quite funny in a sad no mates frothy lipped drooling down your tank top, sort of way!
Well the Canadians have seriously come out and said essentially the US is trying to destroy their nation via none kinetic warfare so they can be absorbed. It’s a crazy time.
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This admiral is sniffing glue. There is no way on God’s green earth that the USA under Trump will honour it’s treaty obligations. The fact is Europe needs to rearm and we need to keep close to our EU allies.
Europe should NOT be threatened by Russia, a country with the GDP of Italy and yet is spending 40% of it’s GDP on the militarisation of its economy and people.
The EU with the UK has a population of close to 600 million people and a combined GDP X10 that of Russia.
SDSR must massively increase our military power. The government must concentrate on capabilities not a percentage of GDP expenditure.
Whether this is popular or not is irrelevant the number one priority of government is defence of the realm.
Macron has just announced a doubling of France’s army and this will be a fact by 2030 with France by then having an army of 500 mbts, 400+ high performance jets and an army of +250,000.
That’s a real and true response to a threat to our democracy and protection of our national interests. SDSR must do the same. It’s time to think out of the box and rearm and prepare for what the UK must do.