 I'm Brigadier General Joe Chesnut and I'm currently in command of 104 Logistic Support Brigade, which is a UK brigade in the British Army. Defender 21 is an army-led exercise which is to test the interoperability and the readiness of US forces, allied forces and partnered nations. It's currently running for the next three or four months and it's going to draw about 28,000 multinational military forces drawn from about 28 countries. Its responsibility is to exercise across the entire of the Balkan regions, across to the Baltics and into the most strategically important areas of the southern European Basin including the Black Sea region. Over the course of the exercise period, exercising troops will stage through and exercise in over 30 different training areas in 12 different countries. A media response 21 is the theatre opening exercise as part of Defender 21 and its responsibility is to do the staging and the reception and the onward integration of key pieces of equipment and personnel into those training areas. It's currently run by 21 Theatre Sustainment Command and they're doing that reception, staging and onward integration and it's drawing about 8,000 troops from 10 different countries. And it's joined by nature so it will have US led land forces, air forces from US Air Force Europe as well as naval forces which are positioned across the Adriatic to do key points of defence in the cross the Adriatic ports. It's also got the responsibility for logistics specialists which are based all the way down the Adriatic through the Ionian and into the Aegean Sea and they're responsible for that reception, staging and onward integration of equipment and then to be able to position it forward into the training areas for those training troops to use it over the course of the exercise. So the UK exercised in Defender 20 and it's now building on that relationship with the US on Defender 21. There are two key areas that we're exercising. First of all we've got infantry from three rifles exercising in Noble Jump which is part of an exercise in Romania. We've got a company group from Tupara and they're exercising on Swift Response and they'll do a parachute drop in the next week or so. And then we've got 100 members of the arc and they're exercising in Defender CP exercise, a planning exercise spread between Germany and Romania. Specifically for 104 Logistic Support Brigade with a theatre sustainment brigade and we're able to be able to position ourselves to deliver material through with and in support of other partner nations. I've currently got forces positioned in Albania and we're embedded in 21 theatre sustainment commands tactical headquarters. We've also got troops as part of a sustainment brigade positioned in Albania and their responsibility with forces also in Croatia and Slovenia is to do that logistic enabling of all of the equipment and material and to position it into the southern Balkan regions ready for those exercising troops. So my role in immediate response 21 is to be the commander of the tactical headquarters for the commanding general of the 21st TSC forward in Albania. And I have effectively four roles. My first role is to do key leader engagement. I'm the eyes and ears of the commanding general forward. The second is to ensure COVID mitigation measures are in place across the whole of the Baltic regions for those participating nations and troops. The third is to do the command and control of the joint logistics over the shore enabling capability as well as the fuel transfer ship to shore by pipe which will be occurring in the next week or so. And then finally my fourth responsibility is to do the tactical validation of the headquarters forward in Albania on behalf of the commanding general. But I think our role in immediate response 21 is so vitally important because we have historically been part of a coalition of the willing. We've been part of a we are an ally of choice an ally of first choice and we need to prove our own credibility. So I think exercises like this allows to test our interoperability and our readiness and to really understand what it means to be fully integrated. So I think in line with the recent publication of the defence paper in the United Kingdom the military are ever ready and posted around the world globally ready to respond to any of the threats that emerge. So I think there are three reasons why our participation in large scale exercises like this is so vitally important. The first is that it reinforces our unity or strengthen our bond to the alliance and to our transatlantic partnerships. The second is to prove that we're combat ready to test those circuits and to understand exactly what it means to be able to be positioned forward and to get access to the Southern European theatre to be able to position our forces and our equipment at a time. And then the third and probably the most important is that we need to show a willingness to our partners and our allies. We need to understand what it means to be fully integrated to be ready and at the same time we need to understand how each other works. I think interoperability is less about systems and processes and more about friendships and bonds. Those bonds which are forged now but which matter when the time comes and as General Cavoli would say we're stronger together.