German and British forces display deepening defence ties on joint military exercise

German and British defence cooperation is continuing to intensify as the two Nato allies continue to be drawn closer together as the conflict in Ukraine grinds on.

In the latest example of interoperability, personnel from 20th Armoured Brigade Combat Team have been trained by their counterparts from Germany's 1st Panzer Division for the first time.

With British Challenger 2 tanks using German army training areas, Royal Engineers making up a German-British Amphibious Engineer Battalion and the British Army buying German Boxer Armoured Fighting Vehicles, there are abundant signs of deepening defence ties between the two nations.

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Forces News has taken a look at the increasing degree of interoperability between the two nations.

On a journey with the Bundeswehr

Colonel Simon Hirst, the British military attaché to Germany, told Forces News: "I think it's very significant.

"I think we're on a journey with the Bundeswehr, with the German army.

"We have routine Army staff talks and discussions that take place about topics like interoperability. And what we've done now is demonstrated the first step of those goals."

Troops from 20th Armoured Brigade Combat Team were stationed in Sennelager near Paderborn until 2019, and members of its Brigade Headquarters are now briefly back training in their old home.

But this time the exercise they are taking part in is not being run by the British Army, but by Germany's 1st Panzer Division and codenamed White Horse Arena.

Major General Heico Huebner, the commander of 1PzDiv, told Forces News: "We all want to be combat-ready for possibly upcoming warfighting operations, and that is only doable with strong partners and therefore we need mutual training."

British Army Major Micha Hatton said of the exercise: "This has been a big learning experience for the first time to be working with the 1st Panzer Division, to be validated and rolling out all of our functional areas to be tested under the German division."

British Army officers from 20 Brigade may only be on a temporary assignment lasting a few weeks with the German army, but it is not expected to be the last.