The largest air exercise in NATO history begins – problems with commercial flights

From today until June 23, the largest air exercise in NATO history will take place in German airspace.

25 countries, 250 aircraft and 10,000 troops will take part in the exercise, which aims for an immediate response from the alliance in the event of a crisis and triggering Article 5 for a collective response in the event of an attack against the allies. province. Problems are expected to arise in civil aviation, as commercial flights will be banned from time to time.

With the participation of Greece and Turkey, NATO exercise

The German Air Force, which will act as host and technology hub, faces its biggest challenge in decades, military analysts estimate. Preparation for the exercise took about four years, and six air bases of the organization will be used. The United States alone sends 100 aircraft to Germany, including the “invisible” F-35, the alliance’s newest fighter, but also the F-15, F-16, F-18, EA-18, A-10 and C – 13 and C-17, while Greece and Turkey will participate with F-16 fighters.

NATO sends a political message

NATO’s goal is to send a political message about its deterrence capabilities. “We show that NATO’s territory is our red line and that we are ready to defend every centimeter of it,” said Vice Admiral Ingo Gerhartz, who presented the exercises a few days ago. But he made it clear that the Air Defender 23 is designed to project a “defensive” stance toward Russia. We will not fly over, for example, from Kaliningrad. But the US ambassador to Berlin, Amy Guttmann, said the exercise would be “an impressive show of force towards other countries in the world”. The exercise will be “absolutely astonishing to anyone watching and we are not forcing anyone to watch it. It will show beyond any doubt the readiness of our forces and their speed of instantaneous reaction. I would be very surprised if no leader realizes what the exercise shows, in terms of coalition strength. And that includes Mr. Putin.

NATO exercises: the exercises that follow

The participants will participate in numerous exercises, some of which will take place on the ground, such as the “airport evacuation”, which was considered necessary after the chaos caused by the withdrawal of Western forces from Afghanistan in 2021. In other exercises, support for ground forces from the air will be tested, as well as confronting medium-range missiles with launchers. NATO. Scenarios of attack by ships or submarines in the North Sea will also be considered, because, as Torben-Arnold of the German Institute for International and Security Affairs told Deutsche Welle, “the enemy can also attack from areas outside the continent.”

NATO: How many hours will the operations last?

Troops from Belgium, Bulgaria, Britain, France, Germany, Denmark, Greece, Estonia, USA, Japan, Spain, Italy, Croatia, Latvia, Luxembourg, Norway, Netherlands, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Sweden, Slovenia and Turkey The Czech Republic and Finland will participate in training scenarios simulating Article 5 activation. They will be used as central bases in Schleswig-Holstein, Lower Saxony and Bavaria , Rhineland-Palatinate, the Netherlands and the Czech Republic The exercises will take place in German airspace, but also in the Baltic Sea and Romania, with “round trip” flights. Operations will take two to four hours a day, during which, for security reasons, no civilian flights will be allowed. Exercises will not take place at night and on weekends.

Vice Admiral Gerharts acknowledged that managing commercial flights is an important part of the exercise’s requirements, explaining that European airspace is among the busiest in the world. In order to avoid flight cancellations, German airports have extended their operating hours, especially on exercise days. “I hope there will be no cancellations,” said Mr. Gerharts, but he did not rule out flight delays.

According to aviation expert Clemens Bollinger, the mission of air traffic control has been standardized over the past 30 years for civil and military aviation. Controllers are in constant touch with the Air Force, so commercial flights don’t have to be cancelled.