By Markus Schreiber
Germany is hosting NATO’s biggest ever air exercise over Europe next week with 250 planes from member countries simulating the alliance’s response to an attack on Europe. The exercise could cause some disruption to civilian flight schedules and create extra noise.
Germany is preparing to host the biggest air deployment exercise in NATO’s history, a show of force intended to impress allies and potential adversaries such as Russia, German and American officials said Wednesday.
The Air Defender 23 exercise starting next week will see 10,000 participants and 250 aircraft from 25 nations respond to a simulated attack on a NATO member country. The United States alone is sending 2,000 U.S. Air National Guard personnel and about 100 aircraft to take part in the June 12-23 training manoeuvres.
“It will demonstrate beyond a shadow of a doubt the agility and the swiftness of our allied force in NATO as a first responder,” US Ambassador to Germany Amy Gutmannshe said. “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.”
“And that includes Mr Putin,” she added, referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Germany’s military has warned the huge air force drill will have an impact on people using civil airlines in Europe.
Lt. Gen. Ingo Gerhartz, of the German Air Force, explained: “I know there could be restrictions on civil air traffic. On the issue of aircraft noise, we have a higher intensity, of course, where we’re going to be flying.”
While the exercise was planned for several years, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 has jolted NATO into preparing in earnest for the possibility of an attack on its territory. Sweden, which is hoping to join the alliance, and Japan are also taking part in the exercise.
“We are showing that NATO territory is our red line, that we are prepared to defend every centimetre of this territory,” Lt. Gen. Gerhartz said. “But we won’t, for example, conduct any flights toward Kaliningrad. So this is intended to be defensive.”
Kaliningrad is a Russian exclave located on the Baltic Sea between Poland and Lithuania. Lt. Gen. Michael A. Loh, director of the US Air National Guard, said the exercise goes beyond deterrence. “It’s about the readiness of our force. It’s about coordination, not just within NATO, but with our other allies and partners outside of NATO,” he said.
Loh said the exercise would be an opportunity for younger US airmen, many of whom have mainly gotten experience serving in the Middle East, to build relationships with allies in Europe and prepare for a different military scenario.
“So this is about now establishing what it means to go against a great power, in a great power competition,” he said.
