Rehearsal of war: British soldiers on Nato's border with Russia warn they're 'not playing'
Around 1,300 British troops have been training in Estonia on Nato's eastern border with Russia as part of Exercise Spring Storm 2026.
Ex Spring Storm is an annual exercise that has been running for 20 years, and I've reported on it twice before, but this year it felt different.
Fusilier Ruaridh Campbell of A Company, 2 Scots said: "This year this is a rehearsal for war". That is a line I heard from other soldiers too.
Big differences on deployment a year on
Fusilier Glenn Miller from C Company gave BFBS Forces News a tour of the trench his company built, describing it as a "last line of defence".
"You've got protection from big blasts and like splinters from the trees and all that kind of stuff," he said. "So yeah, we would definitely fight from this trench."
This is the second time in 12 months that 2 Scots have deployed to Estonia, but a year on there were some big differences.
Estonia is a small country with a long border with Russia, so exercises here are always not far from Russia, but this time the exercise was being fought just 20 kilometres (12 miles) from that border.
The main battle line centred around the E77; that is, the main road in from Russia, which passes through the southern tip of Estonia and carries straight on to Latvia and Lithuania, and ends up in the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad.
Small teams from 2 Scots had the task of blocking the route to an armoured column.
Fusilier James Middleton from C Company described what that was like.
"We were watching the road. And then, so when the tanks came through, our job was to... pull back and then cause disruption to the troops that come off the vehicles."
Fusilier Ruaridh Campbell said he was pleasantly surprised by how well they got on.
"The company made really good use of NLaws (Next generation light anti-tank weapon)," Fus Campbell said.
"We took out multiple armoured vehicles and battle tanks, which surprised me because normally light infantry wouldn't stand a chance against heavy arms, so [that gave me] a bit of reassurance."
More action on Army-wide push on technology on the frontline
Driving everything forward is an Army-wide push to bring more technology to the frontline; for years there has been talk of this, but again, on Spring Storm 2026, it felt like there was more action.
BFBS Forces News was given access to a new one-way attack drone on condition we did not name it.
2 Scots told me they are the first field Army unit to use the platform.
Captain Harry Bolton, Commander of the Remotely Piloted Aerial Systems Platoon, explained what it can do.
"Last year we had quadcopter drones and small FPVs which could deliver a payload at short range. However, now we have a capability to strike armour at reach and from safety from behind the forward line of own troops… platforms like [that] are massively beneficial to the Army," Capt Bolton told BFBS Forces News.
"They allow a long range and where you would usually have people or anti-tank sections, we now just have a platform that can autonomously do that itself without risking life."
Learning from the Baltics' civil resilience
Spending time in Estonia is not just a chance to check in on current Army tactics; it is also a window into wider attitudes to defence and what the UK could learn from the Baltics in terms of civil resilience and getting the public engaged in national defence. Even at the height of the exercise, the E77 road stayed open.
"I'd say it makes it more realistic to be honest", Fus Middleton told BFBS Forces News, "because like we're going to be in the frontline and then people are still going to be out there."
Fus Miller agreed: "This stuff is happening in the real world and we are close to it… that's why things like not having your phone out here and all that, it becomes apparent because you're genuinely that close to the border. It just makes it feel like this is real, isn't playing around anymore."
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