Army driver's country music-fuelled Nato journey

An Army fuel tanker driver said country music had helped while away on a 1,400-mile (2,250km) trip to Romania as part of a major Nato training exercise.

About 2,500 British personnel, along with hundreds of vehicles, are moving across Europe by land, air and sea to take part in Steadfast Dart.

L/Cpl Lee Moulton, 30, from Kettering, Northamptonshire, said: "I've deployed to a few countries before and this road move is definitely something different."

Steadfast Dart is taking place just ahead of the third anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Much of the exercise will take place in Romania, which borders the war-torn country.

L/Cpl Moulton, who is based in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, described the journey as a "long drive", with country music helping to keep him going.

"Nothing has happened out of the ordinary, but it's been different to driving in the UK," he said.

The exercise is the first major deployment of Nato's Allied Reaction Force, which replaced the Nato Response Force last year, and is intended to test Nato's ability to deploy under pressure.

British troops arrived at a Hungarian military base in Szentes on Tuesday morning and their vehicles were checked over and prepared for their time on exercise in Romania.

"Working with the Hungarians and other militaries has been really good," L/Cpl Moulton said.

"There's been a language barrier, but you get that wherever you go, even if you go on holiday you'll get that language barrier, but you always find the way around it."

The Royal Scots Dragoon Guards and the 4th Battalion, The Royal Regiment of Scotland, have been deployed for the exercise.

The two regiments, part of 7 Light Mechanised Brigade - known as The Desert Rats - will form the main battlegroup, supported by other UK forces and representatives from other Nato nations.

About 730 vehicles, including Foxhound patrol and Jackal high mobility weapons platform vehicles, Mastiff armoured patrol vehicles, as well as fuel tankers and forklift trucks, set off from Marchwood in Hampshire last week.

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