NATO will hold the largest air exercise in Europe in the history of the Atlantic Alliance next week, German and US officials said Wednesday.
The Air Defender 23, led by Germany, will last about 10 days and will start on Monday. It will involve more than 220 military aircraft from 25 countries of the Atlantic Alliance and allies to respond to a simulated attack on a NATO member.
The US alone will send 2,000 members of the Air National Guard and about 100 aircraft in training maneuvers between June 12 and June 23, according to the AP. Exercise will have 10 thousand participants.
US Ambassador to Germany Amy Gutmann said the exercise, while purely defensive in nature, was intended to send a signal to countries like Russia.
“I would be very surprised if a world leader does not realize what this shows in terms of the spirit of this alliance, what the strength of this alliance means, and that includes Mr. Putin,” Gutmann said, referring to the Russian president .
“By synchronizing together, we multiply our strength,” said the US ambassador, referring to the military exercise as “impressive”.
“This is an exercise that will be absolutely impressive to anyone watching,” he said.
The exercise includes training at an operational and tactical level, mainly in Germany, but also in the Czech Republic, Estonia and Latvia.
General Ingo Gerhartz of the Luftwaffe, Germany’s air force, said the Air Defender was conceived in part in 2018 in response to Russia’s annexation of Crimea from Ukraine, though he stressed that “it wasn’t directed at anyone.”
“We are a defensive alliance and that is how this exercise is planned,” the German official said.
General Michael Loh, director of the US Air National Guard, said NATO’s mission is at a “tipping point”. “A lot has changed in the strategic landscape around the world, especially here in Europe,” he said.
“This exercise is aimed at supplementing the United States’ permanent presence in Europe” and providing training “on a larger scale than is normally done on the continent,” Loh added.
Gutmann said that while there are no plans to make Air Defender a recurring exercise, he said, “We don’t want this to be the last.”
The exercise simulates the invasion of Germany by forces of an eastern military alliance, leading to the activation of the principle of collective defense of NATO territory, envisaged in Article 5 of the Atlantic Alliance Treaty.
The treaty was signed in Washington on April 4, 1949 by the 12 founding countries of NATO, including Portugal, which did not participate in the AD23 exercise.
“We are showing that the NATO area is our red line, that we are ready to defend every inch of this area,” said the Luftwaffe commander.
The director of the US Air National Guard said the exercise goes beyond deterrence.
“It’s about our preparedness. It’s about coordination, not just within NATO, but also with our other allies and partners outside NATO,” he said.
The German authorities admitted that the exercise could cause some disruption to civil aviation in Europe and a lot of noise pollution due to the approximately 2,000 scheduled flights.
“There is no security without cost,” justified the Luftwaffe commander, quoted by the Spanish agency EFE.
Source: DN
