MONS, Belgium – Steadfast Cobalt 2023, NATO’s largest Communications and Information System exercise, wrapped up on Friday, May 5, 2023, at Allied Joint Force Command Brunssum, the Netherlands.
Steadfast Cobalt 2023 is an annual exercise designed to prepare NATO Response Force (NRF) units. It allows components and units contributing to NRF missions to verify and validate their Communications and Information System capabilities under a federated environment of the deployable and static communication network.
"Steadfast Cobalt 2023 focused on enhancing the resilience of NRF networks and communications systems by preparing the network that would be used in a real NRF mission," said Exercise Director, Colonel Murat Ozkilic.
Steadfast Cobalt 2023, NATO’s largest Communications and Information System exercise, wrapped up on Friday, May 5, 2023, at Allied Joint Force Command Brunssum, the Netherlands. - NATO Photos by JFC Brunssum Public Affairs Office
The main body of the exercise this year included the NRF 2024 units from France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain and the United Kingdom. In addition, Allied countries Belgium, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Romania, Slovakia and United States also participated. Partners Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Jordan, Sweden, Switzerland, Tunisia and Ukraine served as observers.
15 NATO Command Structure and 14 NATO Force Structure units also participated. Overall, the exercise involved approximately 1000 military and civilian personnel combined.
Steadfast Cobalt has been taking place since 2010.