NATO paratroopers carried out drop activities over Romania as part of the Swift Response 2024 exercise, the largest Allied air operation since the Second World War.
An annual U.S.-led exercise, Swift Response helps allies practice the complex business of multinational air operations, ensuring their readiness to respond in a crisis.
Swift Response 2024 is part of Steadfast Defender 2024, NATO’s largest collective defense exercise in decades, in which approximately 90,000 troops from all 32 NATO allies are participating.
At an air base near Câmpia Turzii, Romania, German Army paratroopers belonging to the Rapid Forces Division led troops from France, Romania, Spain and the United States in an airdrop operation involving between 1,200 and 1,500 soldiers .
14 transport aircraft were deployed to transport and drop paratroopers into the drop zone, making this exercise one of the largest and most complex NATO maneuvers this year.
Additionally, approximately a week before these exercises took place, airborne forces from Hungary, Italy, Spain and the United States were dropped on an auxiliary runway near Jönköping, Sweden by US Air C-17 Globemaster transport aircraft Force, again as part of the Swift Response exercise.
After landing, airborne forces secured the airfield and prepared to conduct an air assault with U.S. Army Reserve helicopters.
This is one of the first exercises Sweden has hosted since becoming a full member of NATO in March 2024.
Source and photo @NATO
