Scottish Formations En-Route to STEADFAST DART

A UK Forces MASTIFF boarding MV Hurst Point at Marchwood Military Port bound for STDT25, 16 January [©Bob Morrison]

Two Scottish formation from 7 Light Mechanised Brigade are en-route to the NATO Allied Reaction Force (ARF) Exercise STEADFAST DART.

[embargoed until 00:01, 17 January 2025]

The Royal Scots Dragoon Guards and 4th Battalion The Royal Regiment of Scotland are deploying to Romania on Exercise STEADFAST DART, NATO’s foremost military exercise of 2025. The two formations, part of 7 Light Mechanised Brigade aka ‘The Desert Rats’, will form the principal battlegroup components and be supported by an array of other UK and Allied force elements.

A British Army Defender TUM at the head of a packet of FOXHOUNDS prior to boarding MV *Hurst Point* at Marchwood Military Port bound for STDT25, 16 January [© Bob Morrison]

This major exercise will see the recently formed NATO Allied Reaction Force, of which the land component is commanded by the 1 [United Kingdom] Division, being tested to the full as it rolls out across Europe to take part in Ex STEADFAST DART in Romania, Bulgaria, and Greece.

A UK Forces COYOTE boarding MV *Hurst Point* at Marchwood Military Port bound for STDT25, 16 January
[© Bob Morrison]

This week vehicles plus a myriad of stores and equipment en-route to Ex STEADFAST DART have been loaded at the Sea Mounting Centre in Marchwood near Southampton aboard two strategic sealift RO-RO vessels, MV Eddystone and MV Hurst Point. To prove alternative and contrasting delivery routes to the eastern side of the NATO Alliance, one British vehicle contingent is first bound for Germany for an onward overland road move to Romania and the other is sailing via the Mediterranean to the Greek port of Alexandroúpoli.