NATO to hold biggest exercises since Cold War with 90,000 troops

BRUSSELS:

NATO is launching its biggest exercise since the Cold War, testing how US troops could bolster European allies in countries bordering Russia and on the alliance’s eastern flank if a conflict broke out with a “near-peer” adversary.

About 90,000 troops are to take part in the Steadfast Defender 2024 exercises that run through May, the alliance’s top commander Chris Cavoli said Thursday.

More than 50 ships from aircraft carriers to destroyers will take part, as well as more than 80 fighter jets, helicopters and drones and at least 1,100 combat vehicles, including 133 tanks and 533 infantry fighting vehicles, NATO said.

Cavoli said the exercises would rehearse NATO’s execution of its regional plans, the first defense plans the alliance has drawn up in decades, detailing how it would respond to a Russian attack.

NATO did not mention Russia by name in its announcement. But its top strategy document identifies Russia as the most significant and immediate threat to the security of NATO members.

“Steadfast Defender 2024 will demonstrate NATO’s ability to rapidly deploy forces from North America and other parts of the alliance to bolster Europe’s defenses,” NATO said.

Also read: NATO to hold largest air exercise in Europe amid tensions with Russia

The reinforcement will come during a “simulated emerging conflict scenario with a near-peer adversary,” Cavoli told reporters in Brussels after a two-day meeting of national army chiefs.

The last exercises of a similar size were Reforger – during the Cold War in 1988 with 125,000 participants – and Trident Juncture in 2018 with 50,000 participants, according to NATO.

Troops taking part in the exercises, which will include simulations of personnel transfers to Europe as well as exercises on the ground, will come from NATO countries and Sweden, which hopes to join the alliance soon.

The Allies signed off on the regional plans at their 2023 summit in Vilnius, ending a long era in which NATO had seen no need for large-scale defense plans as Western countries fought smaller wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and felt that the post-Soviet Russia no longer posed an existential threat.

During the second part of the Steadfast Defender exercise, special emphasis will be placed on the deployment of NATO’s rapid reaction force in Poland on the eastern flank of the alliance.

Other main locations for the drills will be the Baltic states seen as most at risk from a possible Russian attack, Germany – a hub for incoming reinforcements – and countries on the alliance’s fringes such as Norway and Romania.