The troops of the Turkish Armed Forces, which will participate in the NATO 2021 Steadfast Defender Military Exercise, arrived in Bulgaria.
The 3rd Corps (HRF) Command (NRDC-TUR), which will go to Romania for Steadfast Defender Military Exercise, assuming the role of Land Component Command of NATO Response Force and the 66th Mechanized Infantry Brigade Command troops, playing the role of the Very High Readiness Joint Task Force Land Brigade, arrived in Bulgaria. A total of 1356 personnel, 214 military vehicles, 39 trailers and 128 containers to participate in the exercise started the deployment to Romania on may 10th.
The statement was made on the official Twitter address of the Ministry of National Defence as follows;
“The Command of the 3rd Corps (HRF), which has undertaken the NATO NRF LCC mission in 2021, and the 66th Mechanized Infantry Brigade Command, which has undertaken the VJTF(L)21 mission, are in the deployment phase of Steadfast Defender 21 NATO Military Exercise and arrived in Bulgaria on may 10th, 2021.”
Over 30 thousand military personnel from 26 countries are participating in the Defender Europe 2021 exercise, which consists of the merger of 4 different main military exercises. In the second phase of the exercise, which is called the seizure of the initiative, troops of the Romanian Army Ground Forces will perform mobile defence with the troops of US European Army Ground Forces in the Romanian and Bulgarian territories.
This phase of the exercise to establish a military hospital in Hungary and a Prisoner of War Camp in Albania will be associated with the “Steadfast Defender 21” military exercise. The elements of the 66th Mechanized Infantry Brigade Command that will participate in this phase between may 24 and june 9 will be in Cincu, Romania on june 2-9. In addition, Bulgaria, Croatia, Germany, Georgia, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Moldova, North Macedonia, Romania, Spain, Ukraine and England will take part in this phase of the exercise. The third phase, including the having the upper hand, will start with the implementation of Article 5 of the NATO Treaty within the frame of the plan.
