NATO begins largest air exercise in its history

Kathmandu: The Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has started the largest-ever air exercise in the Western military alliance’s history.

The German Air Force-led ‘Air Defender 23’ exercises, which began on Monday, involve approximately 250 military aircraft from 25 NATO and partner countries including Japan and NATO applicant Sweden, according to the German Air Force.

Up to 10,000 service members are participating in the drills, which run until June 23 and are designed to boost interoperability and preparedness of NATO ‘air forces in a crisis situation’, including protecting against drones and cruise missiles in the case of an attack within NATO territory.

‘The significant message we’re sending is that we can defend ourselves,’ Lieutenant General Ingo Gerhartz of the German Luftwaffe told public television on Monday.

Germany’s Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said on Monday that NATO’s air forces were ‘of central importance in the event of an attack because they are first responders to secure the population and also their own armed forces’.

The exercise has ‘the goal of making it clear that NATO and the German Air Force are ready to defend themselves’, Pistorius said.

This applied to Russian President Vladimir Putin and to anyone ‘who threatens our freedom and our security’, he added in comments aired on national television.

The ‘Air Defender 23’ exercise was conceived in 2018 in part as a response to Russia’s annexation of Crimea from Ukraine four years earlier, though Gerhartz insisted the drill was ‘not targeted at anyone’ in particular.