British Troops Stationed in Hungary for NATO’s Largest Exercise

Steadfast Dart 2025, an exercise involving around 10,000 troops from nine NATO member states, starts in February. Although the Hungarian army is not taking part, foreign soldiers will be stationed in the country, Honvédelem.hu reports.

The Hungarian Defense Forces are prepared to receive NATO troops and are actively contributing to the largest NATO exercise of the year by ensuring the passage of allied forces, announced Kristóf Szalay-Bobrovniczky. The Minister of Defense added:

Hungary is committed to fulfilling its allied tasks, which is one of the pillars of our international security strategy.”

As reported by Honvédelem.hu, the Steadfast Dart 2025 exercise, mobilizing the Allied Response Force (ARF), NATO’s new rapid reaction force, is to be held in Romania, Bulgaria and Greece from February 7 to 21. This is the first major operation of the ARF to test deployable capabilities and procedures. In addition to the three host countries, soldiers from the UK, France, Italy, Spain, Slovenia and Turkey are taking part in the exercise.

From the beginning of January until 7 February, the deployment capabilities of ARF troops will be tested. In practice, this means that during this period the units participating must arrive at the exercise site from their countries of origin.

This is where Hungary becomes involved in the logistics, as its geographical location makes it an important transit point in the region and a key player in supporting the redeployment of military operations and forces.

In the framework of its hosting national support tasks, Hungary is able to provide a high level of logistical support to military forces in transit at short notice. This includes the provision of food, accommodation, fuel, convoy escorts and other logistical needs.

Kristóf Szalay-Bobrovniczky said that the military bases in Pápa (western Hungary) and Szentes (southern Hungary) will provide accommodation, rest and refreshment facilities for more than 400 British troops, representing the lead nation in the exercise, on their way to Romania.

The main forces will move through the country in convoys, in stages, with 20-25 vehicles per convoy column, on January 20-22, mainly during the night, along the Rajka-Pápa-Szentes-Nagylak route. Increased military traffic, with military columns in stages, is therefore to be expected. On the return journey, scheduled for the end of March, similar support will be provided to British troops.

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