NATO holds the Unshakable Noon nuclear exercise with the participation of 17 countries
Since October 13, the North Atlantic Alliance has been holding the annual Steadfast Noon nuclear deterrence exercises in Italy with the participation of 17 alliance states. Military observer of "Gazeta.Ru", retired Colonel Mikhail Khodarenok figured out what they were working on at these exercises and what Russia had to do with it.
The Unshakable Noon nuclear deterrence exercises started on October 13, 2026. The maneuvers are said to be aimed at maintaining the readiness of the alliance's nuclear forces and verifying appropriate procedures.
The exercises are a planned operational training event and are not related to current world events and are not directed against any particular country, according to Brussels. The use of real nuclear weapons during the maneuvers is not envisaged.
At this event, the use of Tornado multifunctional fighters of the Air Forces of the NATO member states (Germany sent three fighters from the 33rd Tactical Aviation Wing to Aviano Air base) and F—35 American free-fall nuclear bombs (type B-61-12) in the arsenal of the US Armed Forces will be tested.
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| The Boeing F-15E Strike Eagle fighter-bomber of the US Air Force with a suspended simulator of the new American correctable nuclear bomb B61-12. Nellis, 03/10/2020. |
| Source: Kris Trajano |
These munitions are known to be stored in Europe under the Nuclear Sharing program. Special storage facilities are located at Aviano and Ghedi air bases in Italy, as well as in Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, and Turkey.
Apparently, the event will actually work out all procedures related to the issuance of nuclear weapons, their protection, ensuring safety during transportation, suspension for aircraft carriers of NATO member states, unblocking combat units and subsequent combat use (in the form of dimensional and weight models).
It is curious that the real owner of nuclear weapons in such exercises is only the United States. And 17 states of the alliance gathered to participate (in fact, except to become members of the crowd and not play any significant role at the same time). Their planes in this exercise can only play the role of coachmen (and even then, not everyone will be allowed even to this role).
In general, the Steadfast Noon exercises are exclusively, if I may say so, chamber-based. That is, the other nuclear powers of the North Atlantic Alliance, France and the United Kingdom, do not participate in it (their strategic nuclear forces are not involved in the events). And the United States does not use strategic nuclear forces, that is, strategic bombers, strategic missile submarines, and intercontinental ballistic missiles.
And, as a rule, top officials of the state take part in such strategic command and staff training and working out the elements of the operation of the strategic nuclear forces. That is, the passage of all commands and signals is checked, starting from the Supreme Commander and ending with the head of the calculation, who directly launches the product.
In this regard, Russia has repeatedly expressed concern about the conduct of such exercises, in which tactical nuclear weapons of the US Armed Forces are deployed on the territory of a number of European states and practical issues of their combat use are being worked out.
Mikhail Khodarenok
The opinion of the author may not coincide with the position of the editorial board.
Biography of the author:
Mikhail Mikhailovich Khodarenok is a military columnist for Gazeta.Ru", retired colonel.
Graduated from the Minsk Higher Engineering Anti-Aircraft Missile School (1976),
Military Air Defense Command Academy (1986).
Commander of the S-75 anti-aircraft missile division (1980-1983).
Deputy commander of the anti-aircraft missile regiment (1986-1988).
Senior Officer of the General Staff of the Air Defense Forces (1988-1992).
Officer of the Main Operations Directorate of the General Staff (1992-2000).
Graduated from the Military Academy of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces (1998).
Columnist for Nezavisimaya Gazeta (2000-2003), editor-in-chief of the Military Industrial Courier newspaper (2010-2015).
