NATO launched a large-scale military exercise along Germany’s Baltic coast on 18 February, conducting amphibious landings near the Putlos training area in Schleswig‑Holstein. The manoeuvre, billed as “Steadfast Dart‑2026,” is the alliance’s largest exercise of the year, involving roughly 10,000 troops from 13 countries, more than 1,500 vehicles and 17 ships. Notably, the United States did not take direct part in the on‑the‑ground activity.
Organisers said the exercise’s principal aim was to demonstrate how forces based in southern Europe can be moved quickly to reinforce NATO’s eastern flank. Amphibious landings, over‑the‑beach logistics and land‑sea coordination were emphasised, reflecting an operational focus on mobility, interoperability and the ability to contest littoral approaches under contested conditions. The concentration of assets and the choice of a German training area underline NATO’s intent to rehearse trans‑regional reinforcement chains rather than static, local defence only.
The drill fits into a broader pattern of heightened alliance readiness since 2014 and especially after Russia’s full‑scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, when NATO beefed up forward presence and increased exercises in the Baltics and eastern Europe. For Baltic states and Poland, such rehearsals are meant to reassure allies that reinforcements can arrive from multiple directions and that the alliance can sustain collective defence under stress. Germany’s role as host reinforces Berlin’s growing profile in continental defence planning, even as it balances domestic political sensitivities around militarisation.
Washington’s absence from the exercise is politically and operationally noteworthy. It does not mean U.S. disengagement from European security, but it highlights a trend in which Europeans are being asked to shoulder more visible, on‑site roles in collective drills while the U.S. allocates finite resources across competing priorities from NATO to the Indo‑Pacific and ongoing support to Ukraine. The split also feeds debates inside the alliance about burden‑sharing, command arrangements and how best to present a unified deterrent posture to Moscow.
The immediate practical effect of Steadfast Dart‑2026 will be judged by how well NATO integrates sea, land and logistics chains to move forces across long distances—and by Moscow’s reaction. Large exercises near Russia’s western approaches routinely draw sharp responses and messaging from the Kremlin; NATO must calibrate signalling to deter aggression without unnecessarily escalating tensions. In the medium term, the exercise showcases NATO’s emphasis on mobility and joint logistics as prerequisites for effective deterrence and will likely inform procurement, basing and rotational plans in the months ahead.