Hundreds of military vehicles leave Hampshire for major Nato exercise
90,000 troops from Nato countries are taking part in the exercise Steadfast Defender
Last updated 14th Feb 2024
An operation has taken place near Southampton to load hundreds of armoured vehicles onto a ship ahead of a major Nato exercise.
The five-month drill called Steadfast Defender is the largest in Europe since the end of the Cold War.
Armoured trucks, Land Rovers, tractors and support vehicles have been driven onto a cargo vessel at Marchwood.
They belong to 7 Light Mechanised Brigade, also known as The Desert Rats, who are en-route to Poland.
Major Simon Robertson of 17 Port and Maritime Regiment, told the PA news agency: "It's very much down to us to ensure that we get the vehicles where they need to be and the people in order (so) they can move on to conduct the exercise.
"It's a busy one, it's got a number of moving parts and it's over a four, five month period for us, but actually for the regiment itself we do this day in day out.
"Yes it's got a bit more focus and attention on it but it's something we do on a regular basis, so for us it's very much business as usual."
The departure comes as HMS Prince of Wales, which is leading the military maritime mission, set sail for near Norway on Monday from Portsmouth.
The aircraft carrier will be at the centre of Nato exercises involving more than 20,000 UK military personnel across Scandinavia and northern Europe.
Commodore James Blackmore, commander of the UK Carrier Strike Group leading the HMS Prince of Wales, said on Monday: "The UK has an unwavering commitment to Nato and collective deterrence and defence of the Euro-Atlantic region.
"There is no better demonstration of that than HMS Prince of Wales being at the heart of the upcoming Nato maritime exercises, the largest in over 40 years."