NATO to start biggest drills in decades with some 90,000 troops

PHOTO CAPTION: Operators from the United Kingdom Special Forces and the Ukrainian Special Purpose Unit await exfiltration via helicopter following an assault on an oil rig during exercise Night Hawk 21 with NATO allies in Denmark, Oct. 6 2021. (NATO photo via Flickr)

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Around 90,000 troops will participate in NATO's largest exercise for decades, known as Steadfast Defender 2024, that will kick off next week and run through to May, the alliance's top commander Chris Cavoli said on Thursday.

"The Alliance will demonstrate its ability to reinforce the Euro-Atlantic area by a transatlantic movement of forces from North America," the U.S. general told reporters in Brussels after a two-day meeting of national chiefs of defence.

The troops will come from NATO allies and Sweden, according to Cavoli.

(Reporting by Sabine Siebold and Andrew Gray; Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta)

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