Spring Storm 24/Swift Response 24:British Army is Ready to Defend Estonia Today

British troops are practising warfighting on NATO's Eastern Flank in NATO Exercise Spring Storm 24.The drills are part of NATO's Defender Europe 2024,the largest NATO exercise since the Cold War,with over 90,000 military personnel participating.Spring Storm simulates a Russian attack on Estonia.In Spring Storm,Estonia is hosting an annual military exercise led by an Infantry Division of its Estonian Defence Forces.The goal is to train in defensive joint operations with Allied Units,focusing within a scenario covered by NATO Article V,an attack on one is an attack on all.Participants include military forces from Estonia,the UK,Denmark,France,the US and Finland,with Republic of Georgia and Ukraine participating as observers.The drills run from 12-31 May 2024.According to the UK news outlet The Independent,BG Giles Harris,commander of British forces in the Baltics,said:It's very urgent.I'm not going to second guess what may or may not happen,but as military personnel,our job is to be ready.There is no point in waiting to be ready.We should be ready now.And what's playing out in Ukraine provides us with the lessons that we nee to learn.Our mindset is whether it's today or tomorrow,we must make ourselves ready to defend every inch of Estonian land if necessary.In the minds of the Soldiers,the strategic purpose and context in which we're doing this training has definitely changed.The fact that we are doing this so close to Russia brings it home why it's so important to be here.*Said BG Mark Berry,commander of 16 Air Assault Brigade:I don't consider any of the activities my Soldiers conduct is a show.My role is to make sure that Soldiers have the right training opportunities and feel ready and prepared to work together with Allies or on their own.We do,of course,send messages to whoever will listen.We want to make clear our forces are ready...they're capable of working with each other.In any specific time frame,when we are training we are looking for lessons from conflict zones,anywhere that has a lesson we can take.*Said LTC David Lambert of the Army Air Corps:The training is generally as realistic as it gets.There is no artificiality in this.It's just as good training from the lowest level all the way to the top.We are ready to fight today.*In the overlapping Swift Response 24,the U.S. led Immediate Response Force will carry out joint operations to enhance readiness;foster interoperaability;and contribute to NATO's assurance and deterrence efforts.Aligned with U.S. European Command's (USEUCOM) North/South exercise campaign,it involves both command post exercises and field training drills.Paticipants include the US and France,with USEUCOM leading the initiative.It runs from 14 May-14 June 2024 in Poland,Latvia,Lithuania,Estonia and the Republic of Georgia.