British army working alongside NATO during Defender Europe 20 Exercise.

Exercise Defender Europe 20 is a US Army-led joint, multinational training exercise that includes approximately 2600 UK service personnel, who will deploy from the UK and participate in the series of linked activities that comprise Defender Europe 20. Activities are planned to occur from February through to July 2020.

British Royal Engineers in Minden, Germany to learn about amphibious engineering ahead of the Corps’s participation in Exercise Defender Europe 20 (Picture source: British Army/Sgt. Alistair Laidlaw)

The British Army is committing 2.600 personnel to Defender Europe 20 working alongside NATO allies(partners from 18 countries) to enable the US Army to exercise strategic readiness by deploying into Europe. The exercise is defensive in nature and designed to build readiness.

This deployment forms part enablement of the largest deployment of US-based Army forces to Europe for an exercise in the last 25 years. The ability to rapidly surge combat-ready forces into and across Europe is critical to projecting forces at a moment’s notice to support the alliance and respond to crisis. The UK stands ‘shoulder to shoulder’ with its NATO allies and partners and its commitment to European security is unconditional. The transatlantic bond has made NATO the strongest alliance in world history.

In total, around 37,000 soldiers are participating in the exercise, which is to continue until June. Their objective is Poland and the Baltic states.

 US-Led Exercise Defender Europe 20 (Picture source: U.S. Army Europe)