British troops and hundreds of vehicles depart for Nato's largest exercise since Cold War

More than 700 British Army vehicles are making their way to Poland for Exercise Steadfast Defender, the largest Nato exercise since the Cold War.

Vehicles belonging to 7th Light Mechanised Brigade, the Desert Rats, were loaded onto a 23,000-tonne cargo vessel by 17 Port and Maritime Regiment RLC at Marchwood in Hampshire.

Meanwhile, more than 1,500 service personnel will fly out to join the Nato exercise in a demonstration of the alliance's unity and capability.

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Among the various vehicles being ferried to Germany en route to Poland are Foxhound patrol vehicles, which were designed and built in Britain to protect against threats faced by troops in Afghanistan.

Also embarked are Jackal 2 reconnaissance vehicles, a range of different trucks, Land Rovers, engineer tractors and support vehicles.

Major Simon Robertson of 17 Port and Maritime Regiment said: "It’s very much down to us to ensure that we get the vehicles where they need to be and the people in order [so] they can move on to conduct the exercise.

"It’s a busy one, it’s got a number of moving parts and it’s over a four, five-month period for us, but actually for the regiment itself we do this day in day out.

"Yes it’s got a bit more focus and attention on it, but it’s something we do on a regular basis, so for us it’s very much business as usual."

HMS Prince of Wales, replacing her sister ship, is leading the military maritime mission and set sail for Norway on Monday.

The £3.3bn aircraft carrier will be at the centre of Nato exercises involving more than 20,000 UK military personnel across Scandinavia and northern Europe.

Exercise Steadfast Defender sees 31 Nato nations and Sweden taking part in a series of exercises across Europe to simulate repelling an invasion by Russian forces.

Commodore James Blackmore, the commander of the UK Carrier Strike Group leading HMS Prince of Wales, said: "The UK has an unwavering commitment to Nato and collective deterrence and defence of the Euro-Atlantic region.

"There is no better demonstration of that than HMS Prince of Wales being at the heart of the upcoming Nato maritime exercises, the largest in over 40 years."