NATO published video today of two airborne operations, one in Romania and one in Sweden, during exercise Swift Response 2024, which is part of the Steadfast Defender series of exercises. The b-roll shot in Romania shows Allied paratroopers jumping into Câmpia Turzii. Footage includes soundbites (in English) from the Deputy Chief of Staff of the Romanian Land forces.
The NATO paratroopers descended over Romania as part of exercise Swift Response 2024, the largest Allied airborne operation since the Second World War.
Swift Response 2024 is part of Steadfast Defender 2024, NATO’s largest collective defence drills in decades, featuring the participation of around 90,000 troops contributed by all 32 NATO Allies.
At an airbase near Câmpia Turzii, Romania, German Armed Forces paratroopers from the Rapid Forces Division led troops from France, Romania, Spain and the United States in an airborne operation that involved between 1,200 and 1,500 soldiers. 14 transport aircraft carried them to the drop zone, making this one of NATO’s largest and most complex manoeuvres this year.
Brigadier General Daniel Pop – Deputy Chief of Staff of the Romanian Land forces, Romanian Army stated: “We try, with each exercise, to prove that we are able to do a lot of things that maybe could be done during a conflict. And for this exercise every time different kind of procedures, techniques, at different scales. Now, nowadays is the moment, the proper moment, to see something like this.”
“The biggest and the most important message is that the NATO is here, NATO is everywhere that it is needed in order to provide for their people a safe and secure environment,” he added.
Major General Dirk Faust – Commander of the Rapid Forces Division, German Army also said:
“Swift Response is an integral part of Steadfast Defender, and NATO demonstrates its ability and capability to quickly react and respond and deploy forces.
Paratroopers, you can bring them very quickly to an area or to a terrain to commence an operation or conduct an operation where you don’t need an airfield. You just insert them by parachuting. And this is why, still, paratroopers have high value for NATO. And this is why we yearly conduct the Swift Response exercise.
Once you board the airplane and once you’re in the air, there is a little quiet in the air. Every paratrooper, you look around and you see the paratroopers, they are with their thoughts. And then, when the preparation starts for the jump, it gets a little bit more busy, and you can feel, you can feel every paratrooper wants now getting out of the airplane and wants to jump. And nevertheless, there is always a little bit excitement and they are waiting until the light gets green, the horn sound sounds, and the first guy gets out of the door. And all the others follow automatically.”
Click here to download the b-roll. Footage includes shots of multinational paratroopers arriving in the drop zone, as well as interviews with German and Romanian officers.
About a week before these drills, airborne forces from Hungary, Italy, Spain and the United States were dropped at an auxiliary airstrip near Jönköping, Sweden by US Air Force C-17 Globemaster transport aircraft, also as part of exercise Swift Response. After landing, the forces secured the airfield and prepared to conduct an air assault with US Army Reserve helicopters.
This is one of the first exercises Sweden has hosted since becoming a full NATO member in March 2024.
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