NATO is planning to hold its largest ever Air Force exercises in June, the German Armed Forces has announced. The drills appear to be a major demonstration of power meant primarily for Russia.
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The German-led exercise involving hundreds of aircraft is schedules for June and will coincide with a massive US troop deployment.
The exercises dubbed “Air Defender 23,” are scheduled to take place between June 12 and June 24 and are expected to involve hundreds of aircraft from dozens of nations.
According to Berlin, the drills are to be held mostly over German territory, although a map published by the Bundeswehr shows that the airspace of Estonia, which borders Russia, and of Romania, which borders Ukraine, could be used as well.’
Lt. Gen. Ingo Gerhartz, Chief of the German air force while discussing the exercise said;
“We want to demonstrate determined Allied Air Power. Together with the U. S. and our allies in Europe, @Team_Luftwaffe will send a highly visible and powerful signal of credible deterrence in the air domain.”
The plan of the drills “is modeled after an Article 5 Assistance scenario,” the Bundeswehr said, calling it “challenging air operations training” for the participating troops. The exercise is aimed at “optimizing” the cooperation between the participating nations and demonstrating the “strength” of the military bloc.
A total of 10,000 soldiers and 220 aircraft are to be involved in the war games, the Bundeswehr said, adding that they are to train “in the European airspace.”
A total of 24 nations are to take part in the drills, including Finland, which only joined NATO earlier in April. Sweden, which has yet to join the bloc, will participate in the exercise too.
The US Air National Guard will provide around half the aircraft used in the German-led exercise in June. Its commander, Lieutenant General Michael Loh, maintained that there is no set scenario pitting the NATO forces against a particular adversary during the drills. Yet, he still did mention Moscow during a briefing on the matter earlier this week.
Russia Today reported that the drills coincide with a separate US-led exercise called Defender Europe 23. “This annual, nearly two-month-long exercise is focused on the strategic deployment of US-based forces, the employment of Army pre-positioned stocks and interoperability with European allies and partners,” the Pentagon’s deputy press secretary, Sabrina Singh, told journalists earlier this week.
A total of 9,000 US soldiers, together with 17,000 troops from 26 other nations, are to participate in the drills, which would take place across ten European nations, Singh said. Washington had already started shipping the equipment needed for the exercise to Europe, she added. According to the Pentagon, the first pieces of equipment have already arrived in Spain.
Some 7,000 pieces of equipment are to be transported to Europe as part of the drills. Around 13,000 other pieces of equipment are to be drawn from pre-positioned stocks, the Pentagon said. The US-led exercise is to kick off on April 22.
Prior to the air drill, NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence (CCDCOE), which operates in Tallinn, will host the world’s largest cyber defence exercise, Locked Shields 2023, on April 18–21, involving nearly 3,000 participants.
Nnamdi Maduakor is a Writer, Investor and Entrepreneur
