Isamaa MEP Riho Terras, who was EDF chief from 2011-2018 reaching the rank of general, recently told Times Radio that the UK had experienced difficulty, which he attributed to financial issues, in assembling a brigade-sized force (around 3,000-5,000 personnel), including to take part in the upcoming Exercise Siil.

Defense sources estimate around a thousand British military personnel in Estonia, down from a peak of 1,650 in April 2022, plus fewer than ten Challenger 2 Main Battle Tanks, even as then-defense secretary Ben Wallace had pledged at the June 2022 Madrid Summit to send an additional thousand soldiers, aiming for a brigade-sized force of 2,650 troops.

Opposition Liberal Democrat MP in the UK Mike Martin cautioned against what he called sending the "wrong signal to Vladimir Putin," given the previous line had been to increase deployments to Estonia and the eastern flank, while Secretary of Defense John Healey told journalists Wednesday that British troops are "highly valued" in Estonia, that UK troops with their Estonian allies were "on the front line" and "reinforcing that eastern flank on the Russian border," and that they are "a really important part of NATO's defense posture."

Healey made his remarks after meeting Estonian counterpart Hanno Pevkur (Reform) at the UK's defense ministry, while a diplomatic source countered Terras' comments, telling The Times, "deployability is key," and that UK troops' ability to respond to threats is better now than in the recent past.

Matthew Savill, director of military sciences at think tank RUSI, however cautioned that if a 5,000-strong British brigade were deployed to Ukraine as a peacekeeping force, this would impact other NATO commitments.

There are a little over 200 Challenger 2's in British Army service at present, The Independent reported recently, with 14 Challengers having been donated to Ukraine.

British embassy spokesperson: We will deploy brigade to Estonia on exercise in May

A British Embassy in Estonia spokesman told ERR News: "The Forward Land Forces Battlegroup based in Tapa is described as 'best in class' by NATO and includes Challenger 2 tanks, infantry fighting vehicles, infantry with anti-tank weapons, mortars and sniper rifles, engineers, the latest Archer artillery system, short-range air defense, and Multiple Launch Rocket Systems, plus a French company with Griffon vehicles. It represents a significant part of the allied fighting power available in Estonia."

"The uplift to two battlegroups in 2022 was a quick response to Russia's illegal full-scale invasion of Ukraine. During the period of this uplift, the UK and Estonia worked on a longer-term plan, namely allocating a brigade in the UK at very high readiness to Estonia. We will deploy this brigade to Estonia on exercise in May," the statement continued.

Britain has been the lead NATO nation in Estonia so far as ground forces go since early 2017, when decisions made at the previous year's Warsaw summit materialized into a battlegroup based at Tapa. The changed security situation from February 2022 provided even greater impetus for more allied troops to deploy to Estonia. Solutions have included having a brigade at high readiness for deployment to Estonia where needed.

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