Western Force Heading East

Text: Bettina Sin | Photo: Dávid Fabók | 13:19 January 23, 2025

The first units of nations participating in the large-scale NATO Steadfast Dart 2025 alert and deployment exercise started their journey to Romania in January. As part of the exercise, military convoys of the British Armed Forces are crossing our country in several turns during their deployment. On 21 January, three convoys with 150 soldiers performing logistical tasks arrived from the Pápa Air Base to the HDF 14th Engineer Regiment, Szentes in the early morning hours.

Colonel Dr. Attila Csurgó, Commander, HDF 14th Engineer Regiment, said that the host unit of Szentes provides the allied soldiers with accommodation, food and support for carrying out maintenance tasks. “My colleagues help in similar deployments several times a year. Host nation support is a basic task of each unit. The first part of Exercise Steadfast Dart 2025 is the deployment of forces, a part of which is the on-land movement of British units, during which the speed of the repositioning and the efficiency of the host countries are also measured”, explained Colonel Csurgó.

Testing interoperability is of key importance. This was confirmed by Lieutenant Colonel Andrew Higgs, UK Defence Attaché to Hungary and Croatia. He underlined “The key points about Exercise Steadfast Dart are really three things. The first thing that it shows is NATO’s readiness, the next thing it shows is NATO’s capability, and the third part really shows the mobility. We are coming from the UK, we are deploying to Romania; and this is obviously showing us as a mobile, robust, credible, capable and ready force”.

Within the framework of the host nation support, the Hungarian Defence Forces install convoy support centers. By enhancing and supporting the alliance forces’ transit, Hungary actively contributes to the exercise to be carried out in Romania. The last British convoys will leave Hungary on 25 January.

Increased military traffic, phased military march columns are to be expected on Wednesday, 22 January from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. on the route Szentes, HDF 14th Engineer Regiment – Main Road 451 – Main Road 45 –Main Road 47 – M43 motorway – Road 448 Nagylak, old border crossing point.

The Hungarian Defence Forces kindly ask all traffic participants to drive with great caution near the military vehicles/convoys, as their size and speed, as well as the length of convoys and their mode of movement may differ from the usual standards of everyday road traffic. At the same time, they ask the local residents for patience, and thank them for their understanding.

Steadfast Dart 2025