Exercise Steadfast Defender 2024

• NATO recently launched its biggest military exercise since 1988- ‘Exercise Steadfast Defender’
• Some 90,000 troops from the United States and fellow NATO allied nations are due to join the Steadfast Defender 2024 drills that will run through May.
• More than 50 ships from aircraft carriers to destroyers will take part, as well as more than 80 fighter jets, helicopters and drones and at least 1,100 combat vehicles including 133 tanks and 533 infantry fighting vehicles.

ABOUT NATO

• The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is an intergovernmental military alliance based on the Washington treaty, which was signed in 1949.
• Headquarters- Brussels, Belgium
• Members- 31 Countries
• NATO remains the principal security instrument of the transatlantic community and expression of its common democratic values.
  • Article 5 of the Washington Treaty — that an attack against one Ally is an attack against all — is at the core of the Alliance, a promise of collective defense.

Article 4 of the treaty ensures consultations among Allies on security matters of common interest