LONDON — Britain will deploy a carrier strike group to the North Atlantic and the High North this year, Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Saturday, Feb. 14, 2026.
Starmer made the announcement at the Munich Security Conference in Germany.
Sky News reported the British aircraft carrier HMS Prince of Wales will lead the deployment.
Starmer said Europe “must be ready to fight.”
He described Europe as a “sleeping giant” with “huge defense capabilities.”
However, Starmer said “too often this adds up to less than the sum of its parts.”
Britain is no longer the country it was during the Brexit years,
he said.
Starmer said there is no British security without Europe and there is no European security without Britain.
He addressed the commitment of Britain to defend its allies if called upon based on Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
Article 5 sets the principle of collective defense among member states. / XINHUA