Britain has reduced its military commitment to Estonia despite being a key NATO partner in the area, it was claimed last night. General Riho Terras, the former head of Estonian Defence Forces turned MEP, claimed the UK is no longer able to commit a brigade-size force of between 3,000-5,000 troops to the country for an upcoming NATO exercise because of “financial issues”.

And he claimed the current British battlegroup permanently based there is fielding "fewer than 10" Challenger tanks, as opposed to a full squadron of 14. NATO's Enhanced Forward Presence (eFP) involves deploying robust, multinational, combat-ready forces in Northern, Central, and Eastern Europe, with four battalion-size battlegroups in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland, led by the UK, Canada, Germany, and the US, respectively. Under Operation Cabrit, established in 2016, the UK contributes to the eFP in Estonia and Poland.

According the the British Army, the UK’s permanent commitment to Estonia is around 900 troops. Even this, however, is a reduction from a peak of 1,650 troops.

And the UK's former Defence 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.

A brigade combat team of around 3000-5000 troops is supposed to be “held at readiness and deploys its fighting power to secure NATO’s flank in Estonia”, where it leads a multinational force of Danish, French, and Estonian forces.

These troops are intended to be deployed rapidly in times of heightened crisis. But is the UK’s ability to deploy the brigade which General Terras has questioned.

“The UK has difficulties putting together one brigade to participate in operations. I see it in Estonia every day,” Gen Terras told Times Radio.

He claimed the UK was not expected to be able to send a brigade-sized force to Exercise Hedgehog, one of the biggest NATO exercises in the Baltics, which is due to take place in Estonia in May.

“The UK is not coming with the full power to the exercises because they have problems with the financing,” he added.

On Wednesday, Defence Secretary John Healey said that British troops are "highly valued" in Estonia, and they, along with their Estonian allies, were "on the front line" and "reinforcing that eastern flank on the Russian border”.

Last night, defence expert Col. Stuart Crawford said: “As far as the UK’s commitment in Estonia goes, it has pledged to deploy a battlegroup, and that is what it is doing, albeit a small one. The bigger concern is that we have fewer than 10 Challenger tanks, as opposed to a full squadron of 14. This is almost below critical mass.

“This is undoubtedly due to our upgrade programme, whereby we are replacing turrets to create Challenger 3 Main Battle Tanks.

“But you would have thought the MoD ensured a full strength squadron was maintained in Estonia while this process was ongoing."

The former tank commander added: “A brigade combat team will have been assigned, but if we are struggling to fulfil this it doesn’t speak well for the chances of the UK deploying boots on the ground for a UK peacekeeping force.”

However, a British Embassy spokesman in Estonia said the UK would stand by its commitment to ​deploy a full brigade in May.

"The Forward Land Forces Battlegroup based in Tapa (Army base) 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 defence, and Multiple Launch Rocket Systems, plus a French company with Griffon vehicles," said the spokesman

“It represents a significant part of the allied fighting power available in Estonia.”

The spokesman described the uplift to two battlegroups in 2022 as a “quick response” to Russia's illegal full-scale invasion of Ukraine, adding: “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.”