With the start of the war in Ukraine and the continuing threat to peace and security in Europe posed by Russia, the Bundeswehr had to further adapt its exercise activities.

In recent years, the focus has increasingly shifted to national and alliance defence, and not only in Germany. NATO nations use national and multinational exercises to demonstrate their ability and willingness to defend their territory and the Alliance area. In Germany, the Bundeswehr's Quadriga exercise cluster serves this purpose. The armed forces organise their respective large-scale exercises around this exercise cluster and are increasingly interlinking them. Quadriga 2026 is managed by the Bundeswehr Operational Command. It coordinates all associated multinational and cross-army exercises. In Quadriga 2026, the Bundeswehr is essentially supporting the Allied Reaction Force (ARF) units to be deployed to Germany as part of the major NATO exercise STEADTFAST DART 2026 in their deployment and operations in the country. Around 7300 soldiers from 5 nations are expected, many of whom will arrive at German North Sea ports by sea. This is also a litmus test for the "German hub".

The ARF was set up as a NATO rapid reaction force in July 2024.

Up to 40,000 soldiers are on standby wherever their skills are needed. The main troop contributors to the ARF are currently Italy, Spain, France, the UK and Turkey. The troop contributors alternate their contributions on an annual basis. The German Navy has been making its contribution since the beginning of the year with the new exercise NORTHERN QUADRIGA 26 (NOQA 26) as the maritime part of this year's QUADRIGA exercise cluster. The exercise is combined with a land-based part (NOQA Ashore) and exercises at sea (NOQA@Sea) have a dual structure. Both parts of the exercise serve different target groups. NOQA Ashore consists of a series of workshops with stakeholders in the maritime environment to strengthen and further develop cooperation and took place from 12 to 15 January. The workshops, led by the Navy, focussed on cooperation with other maritime authorities as well as interdependencies with the maritime industry.

NOQA@Sea will take place from 20 to 25 February with a focus on the North Sea.

The navy is supporting the ARF's maritime forces. This Spanish-Turkish task group will operate in German waters together with other multinational organisations. Reporting on the well-known large-scale naval exercise NORTHERN COASTS (NOCO) will be in vain this year and probably also next year. The realisation of this very successful exercise will also be paused due to the increasing number of other maritime exercises in the Baltic Sea. NOCO 25 was the core exercise of the QUADRIGA exercise cluster and took place under the leadership of the naval command.