Watch as army helicopters fly over Ipswich for NATO exercise

A fleet of nine British Army Apache helicopters were spotted over Ipswich today as they were heading out to Finland for NATO's largest exercise since the Cold War.

The helicopters seen in the video are being supported by four wildcat reconnaissance helicopters and two RAF Chinook support helicopters. 

This comes after the training exercise, Steadfast Defender, was kicked off at Wattisham Flying Station this week. 

The helicopters were due to leave on Tuesday morning but their departure was postponed by a day due to adverse weather.

READ MORE: British Army’s Apache helicopter final flight to Wattisham

Defence Secretary Grant Shapps commented on the exercise, saying, “National security is the first duty of government, which is why we have the capabilities and international alliances in place to protect the UK from both current and future threats."

“In a more dangerous world, this deployment shows that the UK is once again demonstrating how we improve Nato’s ability to meet the challenge of modern threats."

More than 20,000 British personnel are involved in the training exercise, out of a total of 90,000 troops taking part from all 32 NATO members.

The exercise taking off (Image: Paul Chapman)
Each Apache attack helicopter costs over £40 million and is capable of flying strike missions in support of large-scale operations. 

Lieutenant Colonel Dave Lambert, 4 Regiment Army Air Corps Battlegroup Commander, said: “This is one of the largest overseas helicopter deployments we have done outside of Iraq and Afghanistan – and almost certainly will be the largest thing that most of our people will have done."

Lt Col Lambert added that this would be the first time the new Apache AH-64E has deployed on overseas operations for the British Army and he was “really looking forward to seeing what it’s capable of”.