UK will send 20,000 troops to one of the largest NATO exercises since Cold War

Troops will head for the exercise soon (Picture: PA)

The UK will send 20,000 armed forces to participate in what will mark one of NATO’s largest military exercises since the Cold War.

The ‘Steadfast Defender’ exercise is planned to help repel invasions such as that by Russian forces in Ukraine, and will be announced officially today by Defence Secretary Grant Shapps.

Army, Navy and Royal Air Force members will take part in the 31-nation drill across Europe which, Shapps is expected to say, will provide ‘vital reassurance against the Putin menace’.

In the Lancaster House speech today, Mr Shapps will say: ‘We are in a new era and we must be prepared to deter our enemies, prepared to lead our allies and prepared to defend our nation whenever the call comes.

‘Today our adversaries are busily rebuilding their barriers, old enemies are reanimated, battle lines are being redrawn, the tanks are literally on Ukraine’s lawn and the foundations of the world order are being shaken to their core.

‘We stand at a crossroads.’

The RAF will take part in the exercise (Picture: UK MOD)

Swedish troops have already ramped up exercises against potential invasion(Picture: Reuters)

Some 16,000 troops with tanks, artillery and helicopters will be deployed from the British Army across eastern Europe starting next month as part of the exercise.

Meanwhile, the Royal Navy will deploy more than 2,000 sailors across eight warships and submarines, with more than 400 Royal Marines Commandos getting sent to the Arctic Circle.

The RAF will use F-35B Lightning attack aircraft and Poseidon P-8 surveillance aircraft, it is believed.

Defence sources have said the exercise will prepare for the ‘invasion of a member state by any aggressor’, with the main threats being considered to be from Russia and from terrorism.

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Labour backed the commitment of UK forces to NATO, but said Mr Shapps’s speech was ‘little more than PR spin’.

The announcement comes after ministers announced a further £2.5 billion support package to Ukraine and more RAF airstrikes alongside the US on the Houthis in Yemen.

This weekend, a US ship fired missiles at a radar site which was carried out to ‘degrade the Houthis ability to attack maritime vessels’ in the Red Sea.

The Houthis vowed that the US and UK strikes will not go without ‘punishment or retaliation’, after the two nations carried out airstrikes in Yemen on Thursday night that hit 28 locations and struck more than 60 targets.

The rebel group said the airstrikes killed at least five people and wounded six.

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