A titanic aerial exercise which aims to put pressure on Moscow. NATO will conduct its largest aerial maneuvering exercise next week, coordinated by Germany, US and German officials have announced. The “Air Defender 23” exercise will take place over ten days from this Monday, June 12 and will bring together some 220 military aircraft from 25 NATO member and partner countries.
The exercise will be purely defensive in nature, but will also aim to send a message, in particular to Russia, explained to the press the ambassador of the United States in Germany, Amy Gutmann. “I would be very surprised if a world leader did not take note of what this shows in terms of the spirit of this alliance, what the strength of this alliance means, and that includes Mr. (Vladimir) Putin,” the president Russian, she argued.
The exercise will include operational and tactical training, primarily in Germany, but also in the Czech Republic, Estonia and Latvia. The exercise was conceived in 2018, partly in response to Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea, although it is not specifically targeting “anyone”, said General Ingo Gerhartz, head of the army. German Air Force. “We are a defensive alliance and that is how this exercise is planned,” he added.
“A lot has changed in the global strategic landscape, especially here in Europe,” noted General Michael Loh, director of the US Air National Guard, for whom NATO is at a “point of inflection”. “This exercise is intended to supplement the permanent presence of the United States in Europe and to provide training on a larger scale than is usually accomplished on the continent,” he said.
There are no plans at this stage to make “Air Defender” a regular exercise, Amy Gutmann said. But, she added, “we don’t want this exercise to be the last.” Asked about potential disruptions to civilian air travel during the exercise, General Gerhartz insisted that planners had done “everything in their power” to avoid flight delays or cancellations, as the holidays school starts in some regions of Germany.
Created at the start of the Cold War, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has become the main common military defense organization, with 31 member countries in Europe and North America.
