NATO is conducting major military exercises across eastern Europe without direct US assistance. The six-week Steadfast Dart 2025 exercises involve approximately 10,000 troops from nine nations across Bulgaria, Romania, and Greece, AP reports.
Greek and Spanish marines led a military demonstration on 14 February 2025, conducting an amphibious assault near the central Greek city of Volos. This marked the first full-scale operational deployment of NATO’s new Allied Reaction Force, established in July 2024.
The force combines conventional military capabilities with cyber and space-based technologies, designed for deployment within 10 days.
British forces lead the operation with 2,600 military personnel and 730 vehicles, commanding all land forces during the drills. The exercises involve 17 naval vessels, more than 20 aircraft, and over 1,500 military vehicles from Bulgaria, France, Greece, Italy, Romania, Slovenia, Spain, Türkiye, and the United Kingdom.
Canadian Lt-Gen Peter Scott, the deputy commander of NATO’s Joint Force Command in Naples, Italy, indicated that while US planners contributed to exercise preparation, future exercises would involve different participating nations.
“But in future exercises, there’ll be a different makeup of countries that are going to participate. But purely for this one, that’s just the way it rolls out,” he said.
The exercises, ending 26 February 2025, focus on rapid deployment scenarios and multi-domain operations across air, land, sea and special forces, underscoring NATO’s shifting military posture along its eastern boundaries.
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