Soldiers from 1 Mercian honoured for their efforts on Op Cabrit

British troops have been honoured with a medal parade in recognition of their service on Operation Cabrit – a demanding six-month deployment in Estonia as part of NATO’s enhanced Forward Presence.  

Troops from 1 Mercian joined their French counterparts for the ceremony, which marked the conclusion of their operation maintaining the safety and security of NATO's border with Russia.

They have now been replaced in theatre by forces from the Royal Tank Regiment, who are continuing to protect the alliance's eastern flank.

What is NATO’s enhanced Forward Presence?

Following Russia’s invasion into Crimea in 2014 and its 2022 fullscale invasion of Ukraine, NATO nations agreed to deploy four multinational battlegroups to areas most likely to be under threat from Russia attack – known as an Enhanced Forward Prescence (eFP).

eFP’s have been established in Bulgaria, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romani and Slovakia as a way for NATO to strengthen its deterrence from Russian aggression and reinforce its forces on the eastern flank. British soldiers train with other NATO forces on a regular basis, from small training drills to full-scale battle group exercises.

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The UK has roughly 900 troops currently deployed in Estonia under Op Cabrit, with an additional 150 supporting a US-led battlegroup in Poland on a continuous basis.

Exercise Hedgehog 

Stationed at Tapa camp, the 1 Mercian Battle Group served as the resident battlegroup in Estonia, in command of attached French forces. 

The most recent – Exercise Hedgehog 25 – saw over 2,500 additional troops from the UK and France travel to Estonia by road, rail, sea and air in less than 48 hours, demonstrating their ability to deploy a large-scale force to support allies near the Russian border.

Over 500 troops from 1 Mercian took part, where they carried out urban and woodland combat training.

Lieutenant Colonel Grant Brown, Commanding Officer, 1st Battalion the Mercian Regiment and Commander of the 1 Mercian Battlegroup in Estonia said:

"When you add this to the roughly 230 French troops, we’ve got a sizeable force package out here. This includes 19 Regiment Royal Artillery, the King’s Royal Hussars, 2 Medical Regiment and 26 Engineer Regiment.

"There’s a number of people that all come together and that’s essentially what a Battlegroup is. While 1 Mercian is the name, we simply form the core that brings a whole raft of capabilities around it.

"Part of us being out here is not necessarily always to deter but to reassure our allies and to better train alongside them and to show all the nations that form part of NATO that we stand as one. That is key, we are far stronger together than we are alone," he added.