U.S. Army Launches Sword 26 Exercise to Show NATO Warfighting with AI-Enabled Systems Across Eastern Flank.

The U.S. Army has launched Exercise Sword 26 across NATO’s eastern flank, shifting focus from deploying forces into Europe to proving they can fight and win under real war conditions. This marks a critical step in strengthening deterrence by demonstrating that Allied forces can rapidly coordinate combat power, share data, and operate as a unified force across multiple fronts.

The exercise integrates AI-enabled targeting, unmanned systems, and real-time command networks to accelerate battlefield decisions and counter adversary mass. By linking operations from the Arctic to Poland, Sword 26 tests NATO’s ability to execute multi-domain warfare with speed, resilience, and interoperability, reflecting a broader transition toward data-driven, high-intensity conflict readiness.

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U.S. Army Europe and Africa has launched Sword 26, a multinational exercise to prove that NATO forces can fight, integrate AI-driven systems, and sustain combat operations across the Eastern Flank in real time (Picture Source: U.S. Army / NATO)

Sword 26 represents a significant evolution in the U.S. Army’s exercise architecture in Europe. While DEFENDER, conducted from 2020 to 2025, focused on deploying U.S. forces from North America into Europe and testing the ability of U.S. Army Europe and Africa to receive and integrate reinforcements, Sword moves the focus toward warfighting validation. This transition appears to mark a more operationally demanding phase: proving that U.S. and NATO land forces can fight under regional defense plans, synchronize combat power across borders, sustain forces in the field and operate as a unified Allied force under realistic pressure.

At the center of Sword 26 is the Eastern Flank Deterrence Initiative, or EFDI, a concept designed to operationalize NATO’s integrated defense plans in the land domain. U.S. Army Europe and Africa describes EFDI as a NATO regional initiative led by Allies and supported by the U.S. Army, built around low-cost attritable uncrewed systems, AI-enabled targeting, layered defenses and an integrated mission command network using live data to accelerate decision-making. This makes Sword 26 more than a field exercise. It is a live test of how NATO could offset adversary mass and momentum through faster targeting cycles, distributed formations, resilient communications, unmanned systems and coordinated multi-domain effects.

The geography of Sword 26 is central to its strategic message. U.S. and NATO forces are operating across Estonia, Finland, Germany, Italy, Lithuania, Norway, Poland and Sweden, with activities extending from the High North to the Baltic region and Poland. The official Sword reports identify a broad set of activities, including cyber training in Estonia and Italy, live-fire and force-on-force training in Finland and Lithuania, tactical road marches from Germany into Poland and Lithuania, counter-drone operations in Lithuania, Patriot missile training in Sweden, medical evacuation drills and fire support coordination in Poland. This wide distribution reflects NATO’s requirement to defend a broad and complex front stretching from Arctic and Nordic approaches to the Baltic corridor and Poland’s role as a key land hub for Allied reinforcement and Eastern Flank defense.

The exercise includes three linked drills: Saber Strike, Immediate Response and Swift Response, each intended to test different aspects of NATO’s operational readiness. Saber Strike focuses on rapid overland deployment in the Baltic region, Immediate Response highlights sustainment and combat power in the High North, and Swift Response demonstrates the deployment of specialized equipment from the United States and within the European theater. Together, these drills test movement, logistics, command-and-control, multinational integration, force projection and the ability to reinforce exposed areas before an adversary can exploit speed or geographic advantage. In practical terms, Sword 26 is designed to expose interoperability gaps before a crisis, especially in communications, fires coordination, medical evacuation, air defense and the sharing of battlefield data between Allied formations.

The equipment dimension gives Sword 26 additional military relevance. According to the official Sword 26 report, around 1,100 pieces of equipment are being deployed to exercise locations from both the European theater and the United States, underlining the scale of the logistical and operational effort behind the exercise. While the U.S. Army has not published a complete platform-by-platform list, official Sword 26 reports identify several capability areas that can be linked to U.S. defense equipment, including Patriot missile training in Sweden, counter-drone operations in Lithuania, tactical road marches from Germany into Poland and Lithuania, cyber training in Estonia and Italy, fire support coordination in Poland, medical evacuation by rail and air, CBRN training in Gotland and the use of High Mobility Balloons by Multi-Domain Command-Europe to sense and affect targets across the cyber, land and air domains. This equipment layer reinforces the purpose of Sword 26: testing not only troop movement, but the ability of U.S. forces to deploy, connect, protect, sustain and integrate combat-relevant systems across NATO territory.

For the United States, Sword 26 provides a visible demonstration of leadership inside NATO at a time when the Alliance is adapting its posture for high-intensity, multi-domain defense. Gen. Christopher Donahue, commanding general of U.S. Army Europe and Africa, described the exercise as a test of lethality and the ability to harness data and AI-enabled warfare at scale with NATO Allies. This is a crucial point because the future of land warfare in Europe will not depend only on the number of troops deployed, but on how quickly sensors, unmanned systems, cyber capabilities, electronic warfare, air defense, long-range fires and maneuver units can be connected into a common operational picture. Sword 26 provides an opportunity for U.S. forces to test emerging military technologies in a multinational environment where speed of decision, network resilience and data sharing could determine the outcome of a confrontation.

Sword 26 also fits into NATO’s broader transformation since the 2023 Vilnius Summit, when Allies approved a new generation of regional defense plans intended to improve the coherence between NATO collective defense planning and national force planning, posture, capabilities and command-and-control arrangements. NATO has also emphasized high-intensity and multi-domain collective defense, rapidly available reinforcements, prepositioned equipment and strengthened command structures on the Eastern Flank. In this context, Sword 26 turns political commitments into field-tested procedures. With approximately 15,500 participants, the exercise demonstrates that U.S. leadership and Allied unity are being translated into credible combat readiness across Europe’s Northern and Eastern Flanks.

Sword 26 sends a clear message that the United States and NATO are moving from deterrence by deployment to deterrence by operational readiness. By replacing DEFENDER with an exercise built around NATO’s regional plans, the U.S. Army is demonstrating that Allied defense in Europe now depends on faster command decisions, integrated technologies, resilient logistics and multinational combat power able to operate from the Arctic to Poland. The exercise strengthens NATO’s Eastern Flank while confirming the central role of American leadership in turning Allied political commitments into credible military capability.

Written by Teoman S. Nicanci – Defense Analyst, Army Recognition Group

Teoman S. Nicanci holds degrees in Political Science, Comparative and International Politics, and International Relations and Diplomacy from leading Belgian universities, with research focused on Russian strategic behavior, defense technology, and modern warfare. He is a defense analyst at Army Recognition, specializing in the global defense industry, military armament, and emerging defense technologies.