Turkish ground forces featured in NATO Steadfast Dart 26 exercise

​​​​​​​By Baris Seckin

BERGEN/HANNOVER (AA) – The Turkish Armed Forces 66th Mechanized Infantry Brigade undertook significant roles Thursday in the land phase of NATO’s largest live exercise of 2025, participating with an artillery battery, combat engineer direct support and a field company.

The “Steadfast Dart 2026” exercise, organized by NATO’s Joint Force Command Brunssum (JFC Brunssum) in the Netherlands and hosted by Germany, continued with the land phase being held at the Bergen training and exercise area near Hannover.

Land forces from more than 10 allied countries, including Türkiye, Spain, Germany, Italy, and the Czech Republic, carried out live-fire exercises from air and land, along with scenarios involving the seizure of territory and securing the area.

The 66th Mechanized Infantry Brigade, one of the distinguished and well-equipped units of the Turkish Land Forces, and serving within NATO’s Allied Reaction Force, carried out coordinated operations with Italian mechanized units to liberate an enemy-controlled area and ensure its security, in line with the exercise scenario.

Participating nations displayed the vehicles, equipment and systems they used, following the execution of the scenario.

Türkiye showcased domestically developed and nationally produced systems currently in use by the Turkish Army, including the Kirpi 2, Vuran, Caki, Boran 105 mm towed howitzer, Sungur portable air defense systems and the “Aslan” unmanned ground vehicle manufactured by Aselsan.