UK Forces participate in NATO exercise

Land September 20, 2016

The UK Forces are leading training in NATO Exercise Venerable Gauntlet, a military exercise based at Sennelager, Germany.

The UK Forces are leading training in Exercise Venerable Gauntlet, a military exercise based at Sennelager, Germany.

This is the first major exercise before the UK takes the lead in a NATO multinational force in 2017, and sees the UK working alongside troops from Denmark, Germany, Spain, and other allies. The UK is to take on the Very High Readiness Joint Task Force (Land), VJTF (L), which will be ready to be deployed within days of potential threats and acts of aggression to NATO allies.

The UK’s participation in VJTF is just one part of the leading role Britain is playing in NATO,with a thousand troops a year until 2020 committed to the taskforce – rising to 3,000 when we lead the force next year. This comes as part of the Government’s pledge to spend two per cent of GDP on defence. The UK has also already committed to deploy over 500 personnel to Estonia and up to 150 personnel to Poland and train thousands of Ukrainian soldiers by the end of March 2017.

On his visit to see the exercise in action, Defence Minister Earl Howe, praised the UK troops: “The UK is one of the leading members of NATO, standing ready to defend partners in Eastern Europe against any threat. By participating in exercises such as these, we are sending a clear message that we are committed to European security.

“Today, I have seen first-hand the contribution British forces are making to reassurance our NATO allies that we are ready to protect them at a moment’s notice.”

As part of the exercise, soldiers from 26th Regiment Royal Artillery using the Spanish 105mm Light Gun and the 1st Battalion The Princess of Wales’s Royal Regiment have been carrying out urban patrol training with Polish and Estonian forces, a task designed to improve how the different nations operate together.