U.S. soldiers with the 1st Cavalry Division Sustainment Brigade conduct inventory on vehicles at an Army prepositioned stock draw Feb. 27, 2020, at Zutendaal, Belgium for Defender Europe 20. The annual exercise has been replaced by Sword 26, which kicked off Monday. (Elizabeth Clark/U.S. Army)
STUTTGART, Germany — The U.S. Army in Europe this week launched a new training program aimed at putting NATO’s defense plans into action, replacing a five-year-old focus on large-scale troop movements.
U.S. Army Europe and Africa kicked off Sword 26 on Monday with drills across eight countries. The exercise aims to validate NATO’s regional defense plans for the High North and along the alliance’s eastern flank, USAREUR-AF said in a statement.
It also focuses on applying the alliance’s Eastern Flank Deterrence Initiative, a warfare concept that blends drones, artificial intelligence-enabled targeting and layered defenses to blunt an attack by an adversary in the early stages of combat.
The drills, which run through May, involve around 15,500 troops from at least 11 countries, according to an Army fact sheet.
Sword 26 replaces the annual Defender drill, which was launched in 2020 to great fanfare. At the time, Defender was seen as a venue for showcasing the United States’ renewed attention on European security.
“This change reflects the U.S. Army’s emphasis on warfighting, modernization and readiness, consistent with NATO’s transformational priorities,” USAREUR-AF said. “For U.S. forces, it’s a platform for integrating cutting-edge capabilities.”
Before Defender was launched, the U.S. Army had been scaling back in Europe as part of a long-standing post-Cold War drawdown.
Russia’s 2014 military incursion into Ukraine reversed that trend, prompting a gradual buildup of U.S. forces and increasingly complex exercises. Defender served as the Army’s primary platform for demonstrating those advances.
It put a special focus on moving forces from the United States to Europe and testing the logistics required to support them. The Army insists that troop movements are still a focus of Sword 26, but with more of a high-tech twist.
Sword 26 also will deal with rapid overland deployments in the Baltic region, sustaining combat operations in the Arctic and deploying specialized equipment from the U.S. to Europe, USAREUR-AF added.
