Romania hosts 15,000 soldiers in large-scale NATO exercises
Approximately 15,000 Romanian and allied soldiers will participate, in the first half of the year, in the multinational training events planned to take place in training ranges and military facilities in Romania, as part of the Dacia 25 and Dacian Spring 25 exercises.
Romania hosts 15,000 soldiers in large-scale NATO exercises
An indicator of the complexity of the training activities in the first half of 2025 is the fact that the training sequences will take place in no less than seven polygons in the northwest, center, south and southeast of the country, reports the Ministry of National Defense.
The Dacia 25 exercise represents the major training event at the operational and tactical level, which provides the necessary framework for the integration of national and allied forces by connecting with other multinational exercises planned by the Supreme Command of the Allied Forces in Europe – Shape and by the Command of the US Armed Forces in Europe – Useucom. The exercises connected within Dacia 25 are: Steadfast Dart 25 – planned by Shape, which will take place in February, Sea Shield 25 – planned and conducted by the General Staff of the Naval Forces and Valian Strike 25 – planned and conducted by the Forces Command for Special Operations, both taking place in the months of April – May and Saber Guardian 25 – planned by Useucom, in collaboration with the General Staff of Defense, for the month of June.
The first major training exercise in this series, Steadfast Dart 25 (STDT 25), planned by Shape and led by the Joint Allied Command Naples – JFCNP, will begin on February 10, and the operational phases will run until February 21. The STDT 25 scenario will focus on the execution of specific activities of alerting, deployment and integration of forces, in peacetime, with the aim of testing the reaction and response capacity in crisis situations. The exercise will demonstrate NATO’s ability to activate the Allied Response Force and coordinate its rapid transition to a location where it can provide strategic deterrent effects by consolidating already deployed forces. It is the first time that the Allied Reaction Force will exercise an operational deployment since its establishment on July 1, 2024.
The Dacian Spring 25 (DASP 25) exercise planned and led by the MND-SE (Multinational Division South-East), in the period 05 – 26 May, represents a first through the deployment on Romanian territory by France, the framework nation of the Battle Group NATO from Cincu, of a multinational brigade-level structure, approximately 4,000 French soldiers with combat equipment.
The Romanian Army, together with allied and partner forces, is carrying out this series of integrated military exercises, aimed at strengthening cooperation within NATO and the Romanian-American strategic partnership. These trainings demonstrate the unity and solidarity of the allies, as well as the ability of NATO structures and the American strategic partner to quickly intervene in support of Romania. The main purpose of the exercises is to increase defense and deterrence capacity, improve coordination and reaction times, as well as strengthen military interoperability and mobility. In a complex global context, marked by security crises, these trainings become essential for the preparation of the armed forces.
The planned training activities will include tactical movements and exercises with and without combat firing, parachuting, forcing of watercourses, encrypted communications, coordination of transit through air, naval and land border crossing points, as well as specific medical activities.
Source: www.mediafax.ro
