NATO will hold its largest military exercises since the end of the Cold War, aimed at Russia
The upcoming NATO Steadfast Defender war exercises, scheduled for early 2024, are expected to be the largest military exercises in Europe since the end of the Cold War, the Financial Times reports on Monday.
At a time when the war in Ukraine becomes increasingly unpredictable, as neither Russia nor the West have shown any signs of backing down, the FT writes that “NATO is preparing the largest command exercise yet joint live from the Cold War, bringing together more than 40,000 soldiers to test how the alliance might attempt to repel Russian aggression against one of its members.”
Norway NATO winter exercises
As with smaller, ongoing war exercises in Baltic waters, the Steadfast Defender 24 exercises will simulate how the military alliance would respond in the face of a hypothetical Russian invasion.
According to the FT, NATO officials have said that the planned exercises are seen as a key part of "demonstrating to Moscow that the alliance is ready to fight."
Steadfast Defender is due to take place in February and March, and is likely to be seen as a provocation by Moscow given that it will take place in various locations in Germany, Poland and the Baltic states, the latter of which border Russia. According to additional information from the FT report detailing the upcoming giant war game:
“It will begin in spring next year and is expected to involve between 500 and 700 air combat missions, more than 50 ships and around 41,000 soldiers, NATO officials said.”
“It is designed to model potential maneuvers against an enemy designed as a Russian-led coalition, referred to as Occasus for the purposes of the exercise.”
The Baltic Sea coast – where NATO has increasingly exercised its military power with more and more exercises – is very important for Russia since its strategic exclave of Kaliningrad is located on it, sandwiched between two NATO members, Poland and Lithuania. Last year's Defender exercises were the largest to date and continue to expand each year.
A July Politico report explained that “NATO has steadily increased its control of the Baltic Sea, a crucial maritime passage for the Russian fleet that has bases near St. Petersburg and in the heavily militarized enclave of Kaliningrad.”
NATO exercises 2023 Baltic Sea
The publication further noted that “During the Cold War, only Denmark and Germany at the western end of the Baltic were part of the alliance. Poland joining NATO in 1999 and the three Baltic republics in 2004 put most of the southern shore of the sea under the alliance's control. .”
Meanwhile, Russia has sometimes “responded” to these games by organizing large-scale exercises in the Black Sea. But at the moment the western Black Sea region is dangerously in a state of war, as Russian warships launch missiles at Russia from there. Ukraine. Therefore the exercises could take place in a particularly tense climate.
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The article NATO will hold its largest military exercises since the end of the Cold War, aimed at Russia comes from Economic Scenarios .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/la-nato-terro-le-sue-piu-grandi-esercitazioni-militari-dalla-fine-della-guerra-fredda-rivolte-alla-russia/ on Tue, 12 Sep 2023 13:30:30 +0000.