Steve Coerper (4 Feb 2024)
"Steadfast Defender 2024: Key Facts About NATO’s Largest Drills Since 1988"


https://sputnikglobe.com/20240201/steadfast-defender-2024-key-facts-about-natos-largest-drills-since-1988-1116539134.html

NATO kicked off the active phase of its massive Steadfast Defender 2024 drills on Thursday, with the more than four month-long drills set to last until the end of May.
Preparations for the drills began in late January with the transfer of weapons and equipment from North America to Europe via supply ship, including the US Navy landing ship Gunston Hall, which left Norfolk last Wednesday, and Canada’s Charlottetown supply ship, which left Halifax, Nova Scotia days later.
The drills will be split into two parts – the first taking place from February 1 and March 15 and consisting mainly of naval exercises, and the second kicking off on February 12 to May 31 in a demonstration of the alliance’s “multi-domain capabilities” on the ground, at sea, in the air, in space and in cyberspace.

How Many Troops are Involved?

The drills will involve some 90,000 troops from all 31 NATO countries plus Sweden (which is set to join the alliance later this year following the Turkish parliament’s approval of its membership bid last week), and will take place across the trans-Atlantic area, and constitute “the largest NATO exercises since the end of the Cold War.”
Military equipment involved will include over 1,100 combat vehicles, among them nearly 150 tanks and over 900 infantry fighting vehicles, armored personnel carriers and support equipment. In the air, drills will feature 80 aircraft, including F-15, F/A-18 and F-35 fighter jets, helicopters and what the Pentagon has said will be a “myriad” of drones. At sea, the exercises are set to incorporate over 50 warships, ranging from aircraft carriers and destroyers to frigates and corvettes.