Building on capabilities tested in large-scale interoperability exercises such as Steadfast Cobalt 2025, NCIA ensures seamless connectivity and communications, allowing the Alliance to operate as a single, coherent whole.
Steadfast Dart 2026 is the first ARF deployment within the area of responsibility of the Joint Force Command Brunssum, which is leading the exercise. NCIA’s technical experts at the CIS Support Unit (CSU) in Brunssum are facilitating the exercise. “NCIA CSU in Brunssum are at the forefront providing the communication and information services to the warfighter.” said Colonel Marc Verwer, Commander of CSU Brunssum. “Recognizing the scale of the effort, our team remains fully dedicated to excellence, extending our support, adapting our organizational posture, and operating out of normal working hours to meet the needs of our operational partners.”
The exercise tests and demonstrates NATO’s multi domain capabilities: integrating operations across land, air, maritime, space, cyber, and special operations forces. For NCIA, a key contribution is delivering intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) connectivity across data sources, whether they be sensors on land, or satellites in orbit. Enabling the synthesis of information into a shared operational picture is central to situational awareness and empowering decision makers.
“Last year, Steadfast Dart incorporated the first deployment of NATO’s new Allied Reaction Force, demonstrating Allied Command Operations’ ability to respond at a moment’s notice to an emergent threat to our Alliance,” said General Alexus G. Grynkewich, Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR). “This year’s exercise builds upon that success and will again demonstrate NATO’s responsiveness, as well as its strength, in what will arguably be one of NATO’s most visible exercises this year.”
The exercise is conducted in two phases: a deployment phase, which began in January, and a training phase starting in February 2026. Approximately 10,000 service personnel from 11 nations are participating, including ARF units from Bulgaria, Czechia, Germany, Greece, Italy, Lithuania, Spain and Türkiye, alongside Belgium, France and the United Kingdom.
As NATO’s technology and cyber hub, NCIA underpins Steadfast Dart 2026 with the digital coherence and interoperability required for multi-domain warfare, further strengthening the Alliance’s defence and deterrence.