Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many (a) troops, (b) tanks and (c) other military vehicles the United Kingdom had in Estonia on 27 March (i) 2025 and (ii) 2021.

Since 2017, the UK has been the Framework Nation to Estonia as part of the NATO construct, enhanced Force Presence (eFP). This construct provides members of the Alliance positioned along the Eastern Flank of NATO (Host Nations) with bilateral guarantees from other NATO members.

The UK’s presence in Estonia has been centred on an Armoured Battle Group, based in Tapa and comprising up to 1,300 Service personnel and high end warfighting capabilities. These capabilities included the Challenger 2 Armoured Tank, numerous Anti-Tank capabilities, armoured infantry and artillery. In addition the Battle Group is supported by Divisional level assets such as Short Range Air Defence and long range strike artillery.

Following the Madrid NATO summit in 2022 and the full invasion of Ukraine by Russia, the Alliance increased the level of support to Host Nations, with Framework Nations agreeing to reinforce with up to a Brigade in times of crisis. This was termed Forward Land Forces (FLF). To date, the UK has achieved this through the allocation of 12 Armoured Bde and associated capability. Bilaterally, the UK will reinforce Estonia with the balance of a Brigade. This year, 12 Bde are being replaced by 4 Bde, reinforced with an Aviation Task Force. This transition will be showcased on Ex HEDGEHOG, a Baltic wide demonstration of the FLF construct.

Both 2021 and 2025 saw UK personnel numbers remain stable at around 700 personnel in country.