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- NATO’s biggest ever air exercise is happening in Germany.
- The drill is aimed at sending a “clear message,” the alliance said, noting it is a “more dangerous world.”
- The exercise was planned years ago and isn’t tied to any current events, but officials still expect Putin to take note.
A massive NATO show of strength is underway as the alliance faces daunting security challenges amid Russia’s war in Ukraine, a conflict entering a new phase.
Around 10,000 personnel and 250 aircraft, including about 100 from the US, are in Germany for the alliance’s two-week Air Defender exercise. The big exercise involves armed forces from two dozen NATO countries and Japan.
“Air Defender sends a clear message that NATO is ready to defend every inch of Allied territory,” said NATO spokesperson Oana Lungescu in a statement Monday. “Air Defender is necessary because we live in a more dangerous world” and the NATO alliance is facing “the biggest security crisis in a generation.”
The large military exercise has been planned for around five years and is not a reaction to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but a US official noted that Russian leadership is likely taking note.
“This is an exercise that would be absolutely impressive to anybody watching,” US Ambassador to Germany Amy Gutmann said in a press briefing last week.
“I would be pretty surprised if any world leader was not taking note of what this shows in terms of the spirit of this alliance, which means the strength of this alliance,” she said. “And that includes Mr. Putin.”
US Air National Guard photo by Airman 1st Class Nathan Wingate
German Air Force Lt. Gen. Ingo Gerhartz, who is overseeing the NATO air exercise and first proposed it in 2018, has said that “the trigger” for him “back then was the capture, the annexation of Crimea,” according to The New York Times.
Russia seized control of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 while fueling a brutal fight between Russian-backed separatists and Ukrainian forces that has raged for years in eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region. In 2022, Russia attacked again, this time launching a full-scale invasion.
Russia’s assaults have so far failed to achieve their intended objectives, and a Ukrainian counteroffensive operation is presently underway as Kyiv’s forces press Russian lines with an arsenal of Western weaponry, including heavy armor.
How the offensive plays out remains to be seen.
As for the NATO air exercise, the drill will focus on protecting NATO cities and critical infrastructure, which Russia has attacked repeatedly throughout the war in Ukraine, from aircraft, drones, and missile attacks.
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