Soldiers from the Johannes Post Barracks in Havelte will soon participate in a major NATO exercise with around 90,000 colleagues. The aim of this is to train the military to respond if a NATO member state is attacked.
Defense calls the exercise ‘the largest since the end of the Cold War’. The training is known as ‘Steadfast Defender 2024’. The Netherlands is sending more than 5,000 army personnel and two ships. In particular, training is conducted on quickly moving large army units over long distances. This goes from the Netherlands, via Germany and Poland to Lithuania.
The soldiers from Havelte participate in two Steadfast Defender target exercises, each with their own name. The first concerns ‘Allied Spirit’, to which the 44 Armored Infantry Battalion Johan Willem Friso contributes from the end of February to March. This combat unit, which represents several hundred soldiers, will logically not be involved in transport. The spokesperson does not want to reveal exactly what they will do yet.
The second part of the exercise is ‘Cerberus Strike’. Dozens of soldiers from the 43 Brigade Reconnaissance Squadron are participating. These scouts go ahead of the troops to map the area and do this for three weeks in April.
Steadfast Defender 2024 is a NATO exercise that will take place from February to May 2024 in Europe. This concerns a series of exercises in which the 31 NATO member states and Sweden are participating.
Military personnel from the Johan Willem Friso Barracks in Assen are not participating in the exercise