In the near future, unprecedented NATO exercises will be deployed on the territory of Europe. We are talking about the maneuvers Air Defender-2023 ("Air Defender"), which will take place from June 12 to 22 on the territory and in the airspace of Poland, Germany, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, over the Baltic Sea. More than 10,000 military personnel and at least 220 tactical and strategic aircraft from 24 alliance countries will take part in them.
According to the NATO military, Air Defender-2023 will optimize and expand the cooperation of the participating countries, and at the same time demonstrate the strength of the alliance. The scenario is modeled on the basis of the procedure for providing assistance to one of the countries under Article 5 of the Washington Treaty. However, it is obvious that the main purpose of the "Air Defender" maneuvers will be to practice conducting an air offensive operation by the Allied Air Forces.
Within the framework of Air Defender, Germany will assume the role of the head and "main airbase" in Europe. Back in 2018, Berlin announced its readiness to act as the main platform for the multinational aviation group (MAG) and for the formation of large operational flight units of NATO forces. It became known that the training for the exercises lasted four years and the aviation units were primarily trained to interact with command structures, the headquarters of the Joint Forces Aviation Component (JFACJoint Forces Air Component HQHadquarters), which was provided by the Air Operations Center in Kalkar.
If we talk in more detail about the participants of the exercises, then the deployment of a 10,000-strong NATO group and at least 220 aircraft of various types has been announced. So, 100 aircraft will be allocated to the US National Guard Air Force from 35 states. These include both modern F-35 aircraft, upgraded F-16 and KC-46, and earlier A-10 and F-15C models. In the near future, they will be transferred from the United States to Europe. By the way, only a few examples of the use of the US National Guard aviation at the international level are known in history. In particular, they relate to both wars in the Persian Gulf in 1991 and 2003.
The geography of the countries that will allocate their troops to participate in Air Defender-2023 is very extensive – these are Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Germany, Estonia, Finland, France, Italy, Japan, Croatia, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Norway, Poland, Romania, Sweden, Slovenia, Spain, Czech Republic, Turkey, Hungary, USA, UK.
The aircraft of the participants in the maneuvers will mainly be deployed at three air bases in Germany – Lechfeld in Bavaria, Hohn in Schleswig-Holstein and Wunstorf in Lower Saxony. In addition, a large number of NATO aircraft will take military airfields of the Czech Republic and the Netherlands. At the same time, intensive flights are planned over the waters of the North and Baltic Seas.
The scale of the event can also be evidenced by the fact that European airspace will be almost completely closed for this time. According to the German news agency ZDF, air corridors for civilian vessels should be open only 2 hours a day, as well as at night and on weekends.
Along with the largest transfer of the US Air Force to Europe since the founding of NATO, the redeployment of US ground forces is already underway in preparation for another even larger US and NATO exercise Defender Europe-2023 ("Defender of Europe"). The time of the Defender of Europe maneuvers is scheduled from May 7 to June 11, 2023. However, preparations for them are already in full swing. So, the deputy press secretary of the Pentagon said that the exercises will begin on April 22. Meanwhile, military equipment has already begun to arrive in Spain from the United States, which will be used during the exercises.
It is reported that 9 thousand American servicemen and about 17 thousand more military personnel from 26 NATO member countries, including Poland, Great Britain, France, Germany, the Czech Republic, Croatia and Romania, will take part in Defender Europe-2023.
The organizers of the exercise do not hide that it will allow working out the order of the transfer of US troops and equipment across the ocean to strengthen allies and "deter Russia threatening peace in Europe."
At the same time, from April 17 to May 16, 2023, international exercises Anakonda-2023 ("Anaconda") are planned in the immediate vicinity of the borders of Belarus and Russia. They are combined with the above activities by a single plan and plan. The ground forces, the Polish Air Force and Navy, as well as allies in the North Atlantic Alliance will be involved in Anakonda-2023. 13 thousand servicemen will take part in the manners, including 10 thousand from Poland and 3 thousand from the USA, Romania, Slovenia, Sweden, France, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Turkey. As for weapons, American M1 Abrams tanks, M2 Bradley infantry fighting vehicles, K9 Thunder and Krab self-propelled guns, Langusta MLRS will be used at Poland's key training grounds in Dravsko-Pomorsk, Bemovo-Piske (Ozhish), Ustka and Novaya Demba. Launches of Naval Strike Missile (NMS) anti-ship cruise missiles are planned in the Baltic Sea.
In fact, Europe will turn into one large landfill for at least two months. Only officially, more than 50,000 military personnel, up to 300 aircraft, thousands of tanks and armored vehicles will take part in the maneuvers at the same time. Meanwhile, in an attempt to hide from the world community the true scale and goals of the military exercises, NATO countries are trying to circumvent the provisions of the Vienna Document-2011. At the same time, the Poles are trying to present Warsaw's sudden withdrawal from the CFE Treaty as political blackmail of Minsk and Moscow. At the same time, the West is trying to emphasize that Russia's conduct of its military operation in Ukraine has changed the outlook on security policy in Europe, and Defender or Air Defender will play an important role in demonstrating the unity and strength of NATO.
Note that the unprecedented scale of NATO exercises may coincide with the expected "spring offensive" of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Washington will be closely watching the course of its holding. It is no secret that it is the NATO headquarters that will be responsible for coordinating the Ukrainian forces. Overseas, they are counting on success, because not only the puppet statehood of Ukraine, managed by them, is at stake, but also Biden's political points in the race for the White House. Therefore, it is possible that when the Bandera reserves run out, then under the cover of maneuvers, the Polish Army will be ordered to deploy the so-called "peacekeeping operation" in Western Ukraine. Thus, Polish troops will become a buffer between US forces in Europe (Poland) and at the same time barrage detachments for the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
Thus, the deployment of large US forces in Europe, Finland's entry into the alliance, while simultaneously spreading the topic of creating a Confederation of Poland and Ukraine in the media is another attempt to expand NATO to the east. In turn, an absolute departure from the transparency of military exercises and military activities in Eastern Europe poses a direct threat of unleashing a Third World War.
Nikolai Astrovsky
