36,000 troops, 200 aircraft & 60 vessels: NATO launches biggest war games in 13 years | World Defense

36,000 troops, 200 aircraft & 60 vessels: NATO launches biggest war games in 13 years

Redheart

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36,000 troops, 200 aircraft & 60 vessels: NATO launches biggest war games in 13 years — RT News

NATO has started its biggest exercise since 2002 with 36,000 international troops from 30 states, including non-NATO nations, participating in the drills which are taking place at sea, in the air and across the territory of three European states.

The alliance has kicked off its massive “Trident Juncture 2015” exercises which will last until November 16. Along with the NATO member states, seven more partner nations are participating in the drills: Australia, Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Finland, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Sweden and Ukraine.

Some 36,000 troops as well as more than 60 warships and about 200 aircraft will participate in the drills which makes it the biggest since 2002 when about 40,000 troops took part in NATO’s “Strong Resolve” military exercise.

“The purpose of the exercise is to train and test the NATO Response Force, a highly ready and technologically advanced multinational force made up of land, air, maritime and Special Forces components,” said General Hans Lothar Domrose, the Commander of Joint Force Command Brunssum.

“Enhancing our response forces is a key part of NATO’s overall effort to adapt to emerging security challenges. TRJE15 [Trident Juncture 2015] has been designed to ensure that our concepts and procedures will work in the event of a real crisis because our job is to always be prepared to defend the people, territory, and values of this Alliance,” he added.

The drills will consist of two parts: the Command Post Exercise (CPX) for Strategic and Operational level staff, and the Live Exercise (LIVEX) for tactical level troop engagements.

The CPX, which will last until October 16, will include “training, evaluation and certification activities” of the command structure of the NATO Response Force. The European Union and the African Union are also going to participate in the CPX.

LIVEX will be held in Italy, Portugal and Spain between October 21 and November 6. NATO air forces, land forces as well as maritime forces will conduct a number of exercises – for example, responding to a simultaneous, wide-scale attack of a group of 20 enemy ships, numerous aircraft and four submarines.

In late August-September NATO conducted the greatest airborne drills in Europe since the end of the Cold War. About 5,000 soldiers from 11 NATO member states participated in the “simultaneous multinational airborne operations.”

NATO has significantly stepped up its military presence and activity along the Russian border, including in the Baltic states and eastern Europe, since Russia’s reunification with Crimea and the outbreak of conflict in eastern Ukraine, which the alliance blames on Moscow.

Russia views NATO’s ongoing expansion and constant military activity as hostile and destabilizing, repeatedly warning that Moscow will respond to NATO approaching Russian borders “accordingly.”
 

Rowe992

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Why doesn't NATO use all this resource and effort to actually help bring peace to the Middle east rather than playing 'war games'? Such a waste of human and material resources.
 

Gasoline

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Wow , this is not normal, but I think the message is clear. Don't mess with us Rus*** ! (*_-)

200 aircrafts and 60 ships in one exercise ! what will happen if a reall war started. <)0(>
 

Redheart

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Why doesn't NATO use all this resource and effort to actually help bring peace to the Middle east rather than playing 'war games'? Such a waste of human and material resources.
It's probably because such a strategy [sending a huge army to fight ISIS] might not work. Think of Somalia. Why wouldn't military intervention restore some order to the failed state? Because once someone dons an abaya there's no way you can tell whether that person is a combatant or not.

The terrorists would use a similar strategy if a huge army was deployed to fight them. They'd blend in with the locals.

Guerrilla warfare isn't pleasant.
 

Corzhens

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Why doesn't NATO use all this resource and effort to actually help bring peace to the Middle east rather than playing 'war games'? Such a waste of human and material resources.

That's also my idea. Why waste the resources and effort in simple military exercises when they can use those troops to bully the ISIS? Take note, I'm not talking of an all-out war but just a bullying tactics. They can demand the cessation (is it the correct term?) of power of the ISIS in Syria and hand over to the authorities the control. And that big troop of military combatants, just the sight of that would surely scare the ISIS.
 

SLTE

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It's probably because such a strategy [sending a huge army to fight ISIS] might not work. Think of Somalia. Why wouldn't military intervention restore some order to the failed state? Because once someone dons an abaya there's no way you can tell whether that person is a combatant or not.

The terrorists would use a similar strategy if a huge army was deployed to fight them. They'd blend in with the locals.

Guerrilla warfare isn't pleasant.
True that. ISIS probably won't be ousted by sheer force of arms. 'Modern' armies have been learning the folly of throwing excessive force against hidden combatants the hard way for hundreds of years. I suppose even using these war games as a show of force against ISIS wouldn't necessarily cow them into submission, hence locating them in the Baltic states, where they're more likely to have an effect on Russia's foreign policy.

Maybe.
 

Redheart

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NATO feels the need to remind Russia how strong they are. But we've had these war games for months now and the one thing they've achieved so far is escalate tension.
ISIS probably won't be ousted by sheer force of arms.
Yep. Their ideology would still live on. And then they could still recruit terrorists and have them shed blood anywhere in the world.
 
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