STAVANGER, Norway – STEADFAST DETERRENCE 2024, NATO’s first major joint exercise for the new Allied Reaction Force (ARF), concluded on May 30, 2024.
Scheduled by Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE) and directed by the Joint Warfare Centre (JWC), STEADFAST DETERRENCE 2024 was designed to train and evaluate NATO Rapid Deployable Corps Italy (NRDC-ITA) as NATO’s first ARF Headquarters.
STEADFAST DETERRENCE 2024 brought together more than 900 military and civilian personnel from NATO, Allied nations, and partner organizations in response to a simulated highly complex crisis in the North and the Arctic region, enabled by the JWC’s new “360-Degree Multi-Domain Setting.”
The setting operationalizes NATO’s Deterrence and Defence of the Euro-Atlantic Area (DDA) concept and reinforces the new regional defence plans in all domains.
Overall, the main objective of the exercise was to prepare the ARF for its two key roles, which are to support crisis prevention and further strengthen the Alliance’s deterrence and defence posture.
STEADFAST DETERRENCE 2024 also helped advance the transition from the NATO Response Force (NRF) to the Allied Reaction Force – a new multi-domain capability for the Alliance.
In addition to NRDC-ITA as the primary training audience, STEADFAST DETERRENCE 2024 secondary training audiences included component commands representing land, maritime, air, and the special operations forces.
“Exercise STEADFAST DETERRENCE 2024 has demonstrated NATO’s rapid ability to transform political guidance to establish the Allied Reaction Force into reality,” said Major General (Ret.) Roger Lane, the JWC’s Senior Exercise Control (EXCON) Advisor.
“Its ability to deploy a force, capable of a broad spectrum of military tasks, provides NATO with more options to deter aggression and enhance its capability to defend, should it be necessary.”
STEADFAST DETERRENCE 2024 brought together more than 900 military and civilian personnel from NATO, Allied nations, and partner organizations in response to a simulated highly complex crisis in the North and the Arctic region, enabled by the JWC’s new “360-Degree Multi-Domain Setting.”
During STEADFAST DETERRENCE 2024, the JWC hosted the Exercise Control (EXCON) organization, with EXCON Forward teams deployed at SHAPE and MARCOM.
EXCON included a variety of Response Cells replicating the strategic, operational, and tactical levels, augmented by multiple organizations ranging from NATO Command and Force Structure Headquarters and civilian agencies to NATO Centres of Excellence and representatives from Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Denmark.
Additionally, the U.S. European Command served as an observer during the exercise.
“Role players from the Norwegian military forces, complemented by the Police and the Norwegian Directorate for Civil Protection, added important value to the overall complexity of the exercise by demonstrating their total defence concept. Furthermore, focusing on the Nordic region, cooperating alongside Sweden and Finland added new perspective and issues for the ARF and NATO to consider,” said Lieutenant Colonel Bergit, the Norwegian Response Cell Chief.
As a crucial component of the new NATO Force Model, the ARF will replace the NRF in the latter half of 2024, charting a new era for the Alliance.
Major General Jez Bennett, NRDC-ITA Deputy Commander, stressed that the ARF would maximize NATO’s warfighting capabilities, such as rapid employment and scalability of the forces across SHAPE's whole area of responsibility.
Major General Bennett explained: “Exercise STEADFAST DETERRENCE 2024 has been eye opening for us! As a new force conducting a new exercise, despite lots of preparation, this exercise posed us a wide array of problems, some of which we hadn’t fully anticipated.”
“Ranging from the strategic to the tactical levels, the exercise has really challenged us but also given us a mechanism to hone our new skills in an innovative and inclusive way. Working closely with air, maritime, special operations forces, cyber and space colleagues, we have come out of the exercise as a single strong, capable team,” he said.
Major General Bennett added: “We are now confident in our ability to take on this high readiness, wide-ranging ARF role from 1 July this year, and we are very excited at the prospect of continuing to work together as a single multi-domain, multi-national team on exercises and on operations.”
Overall, STEADFAST DETERRENCE 2024 demonstrated NATO’s cohesion and dedication to a solid and durable deterrence and defence posture in its 75th anniversary year, as the Alliance prepares for the upcoming Washington Summit in July.
Established in 2003 in Stavanger, Norway, the Joint Warfare Centre provides NATO's training focal point for full-spectrum joint operational- and strategic-level warfare.
“We are now confident in our ability to take on this high readiness, wide-ranging ARF role from 1 July this year, and we are very excited at the prospect of continuing to work together as a single multi-domain,
multi-national team on exercises and on operations.”
Photos from STEADFAST DETERRENCE 2024 (by Tore Ellingsen)
