Date: May 27, 2021
Troops from Italy, Spain, Turkey, the UK and the US who serve with NATO’s Very High Readiness Joint Task Force (VJTF) are currently taking part in exercise Steadfast Defender 2021 in Romania. The soldiers have undertaken a variety of drills to test their readiness and improve their interoperability. Steadfast Defender 2021 is a NATO-led exercise involving over 9,000 troops from more than 20 NATO Allies and partners. The first part of the exercise is reinforcement by sea. It focuses on improving NATO’s ability to protect and defend the Atlantic Ocean and specifically the strategic lines of communication, which enable transatlantic reinforcement by North American allies.
Steadfast Defender 2021 officially began on May 12 and ends June 22 in Romania.
About Steadfast Defender 2021
Steadfast Defender 2021 is a collective defence exercise based on an Article 5 scenario. The exercise will enhance Alliance security by maintaining NATO’s broad range of interoperability and military capabilities to deter potential adversaries and assure Allies of NATO’s ability to defend them. The geographical locations of the exercise and the scale of deployment across sea, land, air and the range of military capabilities involved reflect NATO’s resolve to deter, and where necessary, to confront and defeat, potential aggressors.