The UK is expected to send 20,000 military personnel to take part in Exercise Steadfast Defender 24 – one of Nato’s largest military exercises in Europe since the Cold War.

During the first half of 2024, personnel from the Royal Navy, the British Army, and the Royal Air Force will deploy across Europe alongside 31 Nato allies and Sweden as the alliance practises repelling an invasion by Russian forces.

Here is what is known about numbers and equipment being sent.

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Royal Navy 

• Eight warships and submarines, and more than 2,000 sailors are to deploy
• A UK Carrier Strike Group, centred on a Queen Elizabeth Class aircraft carrier and her air group of F-35B Lightning jets and helicopters, and surrounded by escort frigates and destroyers, will operate as part of a naval force of allied warships and submarines in the North Atlantic, the Norwegian Sea and the Baltic Sea
• More than 400 Royal Marines Commandos will be deployed to the Arctic Circle at the heart of an allied amphibious task group designed to land in the High North and defend the alliance in one of the world’s harshest environments

British Army

• 16,000 troops from the British Army are to be deployed across Eastern Europe from February to June 2024, taking with them tanks, artillery, helicopters, and parachutes
• There will be live fire manoeuvres, parachute jumps, an Army and Navy joint helicopter force, and Army Special Operations Forces on deployment

RAF

• F-35B Lightning attack aircraft and Poseidon P8 surveillance aircraft are to be sent
• The RAF will practise flying in simulated conflict scenarios against near-peer adversaries