NATO conducts largest air force exercise in the scenario of the invasion of forces from the east

NATO will hold the largest air defense exercise since its inception between 12 and 23 June in Germany with 10,000 troops and 220 aircraft from 25 countries.

The exercise, called Air Defender 2023 (AD23), will be coordinated by the German Air Force (Luftwaffe) and will involve Sweden and Japan, two non-NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) countries.

Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Croatia, Denmark, Slovenia, USA, Estonia, Spain, Finland, France, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Norway, Netherlands, Poland, Great Britain, Romania and Turkey also participate.

“We want to demonstrate the agility and speed of the air force as a first response and show the air power of NATO,” said the commander of the Luftwaffe, Lieutenant General Ingo Gerharz, whose words are quoted in the Atlantic Alliance publication.

A German official said 100 aircraft from the United States would fly to Europe during the exercise to underscore that the transatlantic dimension “is strong evidence of NATO’s cohesion and solidarity.”

NATO’s largest air defense exercise will take place at the height of Russia’s war against Ukraine, launched by Moscow on February 24, 2022.

NATO countries have equipped Ukraine’s armed forces to fight Russian forces in what Moscow sees as a “proxy war” the West is waging against Russia.

According to the head of the Luftwaffe, the cooperation of the participating countries in AD23 “ensures a reliable deterrence of a potential aggressor.”

The exercise is taking place against the background of a fictional invasion of Germany by special forces from the Brückner organization and other forces of the eastern military alliance OCCASUS (occaso, in Portuguese) after years of standoff with NATO.

Russia, which led the Warsaw Pact military alliance during the Cold War between the former Soviet Union and the West, deployed the Wagner Group, a private military organization, to fight in Ukraine.

Led by businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin, an ally of President Vladimir Putin, the Wagner Group was at the forefront of the battle for Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine, which is considered the longest and bloodiest since the start of the war.

In the fictional AD23 scenario, air and ground forces brought into Germany from the east control about a quarter of the country and are trying to break into the Baltic Sea and capture the port of Rostock (north).

“As a result, the Western alliance is launching a defense state. [coletiva do território da aliança] in accordance with Article 5 of the NATO Treaty, according to the exercise scenario published by the Luftwaffe.

Article 5 states that an armed attack on a NATO member state in Europe or the United States constitutes an attack on all NATO countries and may provoke a collective response.

The treaty was signed on 4 April 1949 in Washington by the 12 founding nations of NATO, including Portugal, which did not participate in the AD23 exercise.

Troops and aircraft participating in AD23 will be deployed in Germany, the Netherlands and the Czech Republic.

“Participants will practice complex air operations at training grounds over Germany and perform so-called round-trip flights to the Baltic countries and Romania,” NATO said in a statement.

Three air exercise areas in the east, north and south of Germany will only be used for two to four hours a day at different altitudes and for security reasons will be closed to civil air traffic during these periods.

“It is impossible to completely avoid aircraft noise. Exercises such as Air Defender 23 are an important part of military training and a prerequisite for the German Air Force and its allies to carry out the mission of national and Alliance defense,” the Luftwaffe said.