Royal Lancers get back to their cavalry heritage by conducting mounted armoured reconnaissance with the Polish Territorial Defence Force's 2nd Lubelska (Lublin) Brigade 240723 CREDIT The Royal Lancers British Army — The Royal Lancers get back to their cavalry roots by carrying out a mounted reconnaissance with the Polish Territorial Defence Force's 2nd Lubelska (Lublin) Brigade (Picture: The Royal Lancers/British Army)

NATO

Royal Lancers win Nato photo of the year with stunning scenic shot

The winner of the Nato photo of the year has been chosen after a public vote on social media.

Photographers from the alliance took thousands of photographs documenting the year 2023.

Landmark political events like the 2023 Nato Summit in Vilnius, the grit and cooperation of allied troops conducting Nato exercises, and other moments of “beauty, unity and humanity" featured in the photos.

Nato shortlisted four photographs and asked the public to choose the photo of the year.

The winner showed troops from the British Army's Royal Lancers (Queen Elizabeth's Own) carrying out a reconnaissance from horseback while working with the Polish Territorial Defence Force's 2nd Lubelska (Lublin) Brigade.

A soldier abseils from a snowy Romanian conifer in a forest whilst working with Nato allies (Picture: Vasile Hrib, Bishop Cojocariu via Ministry of National Defence Romania).

Two soldiers are mounted on horses in a field, with a large tree and dramatic orange sky providing the backdrop.

Three other photos were part of the vote.

In one, a soldier abseils from a huge conifer in a snowy Romanian forest as Romanian elite mountain troops train with French allies as part of Nato's multinational battlegroup in the country.

A boat creates a figure of eight with its wake on Exercise Northern Coasts 23 in the central Baltic Sea (Picture: Nato Maritime Command).

In another, a group of vessels sit close together as one boat creates a figure-of-eight with its wake in the water behind them.

Standing Nato Maritime Group 1 and Standing Nato Mine Countermeasures Group 1 joined 30 warships and more than 3,000 personnel from 15 countries for Exercise Northern Coasts 23 in the central Baltic Sea.

The two-week exercise was led by Germany and aimed at ensuring allied combat readiness to deter aggression.

The other shortlisted photograph shows a US paratrooper assigned to the 173rd Airborne Brigade, the US Army's Contingency Response Force in Europe, looking to the sky as fellow paratroopers descend towards him during an airborne operation in Italy.

Behind him, several paras have already landed in the open field.