ZARAGOZA, Spain (AP) — NATO is putting on its most fearsome display of
military might in over a decade, a choreographed large-scale movement of
soldiers, ships and planes meant to hone its capabilities as well as
transmit an unmistakable signal to Russia and other possible foes.
The U.S.-led alliance's aim is
to train and exercise, but it is also "sending a very clear message to
our nations and to any potential adversary," NATO Secretary-General Jens
Stoltenberg told a news conference Wednesday.
"NATO does not seek confrontation," Stoltenberg said. "But we stand ready to defend all allies."
For
three weeks starting Oct. 21, more than 36,000 personnel from all 28
NATO allies and eight partner nations, as well as more than 160 aircraft
and 60 warships, are taking part in exercises across a broad swath of
southern Europe stretching from Portugal to Italy.
The
No. 1 objective of the maneuvers, code-named Trident Juncture, is to
ensure NATO's beefed-up Response Force is up to the job, and that the
United States and its allies can respond promptly and in unison to a
crisis.
For more than a year,
the alliance has been in the throes of a major makeover, largely in
response to Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea and support for a
pro-Russia separatist insurgency in eastern Ukraine, but also to better
meet the new types of security threat represented by Islamic State and
other armed extremist organizations.
"The last time NATO regularly
held exercises of this magnitude, we were in the midst of the Cold War,
facing the Soviet threat," Alexander Vershbow, Stoltenberg's deputy and
the ranking American civilian at NATO, said at last month's official
opening of Trident Juncture at Trapani air base in Sicily.
On
Wednesday, more than 500 paratroopers from the 2nd Brigade Combat Team,
82nd Airborne Division, parachuted onto a military training ground in
northeastern Spain after a nine-hour flight aboard C-17 Globemaster IIIs
from their home base at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.
"High
ceiling, low winds, bright sky — it's a beautiful day to be a
paratrooper," said Master Sgt. Patrick Malone, 31, of Stow, Ohio, a
member of the brigade's advance party
Earlier
in the day, also as part of Trident Juncture, 1,800 troops from 12 NATO
nations, backed by helicopters and tanks, simulated an attack against
an imaginary enemy holed up in a mock village at the San Gregorio
training ground near the Spanish city of Zaragoza.
The displays are meant to showcase the alliance's military muscle and the trans-Atlantic bond it was founded to safeguard.
And NATO has said it wants other
countries to witness what it's doing. It said three Russian inspection
teams arrived in late October to examine Trident Juncture activities in
Italy, Portugal and Spain, and that "in the interest of promoting
transparency," observers from 11 other countries, ranging from the
United Arab Emirates to Mexico, have also been invited.
So
far, the Russians appear unpersuaded. They stayed away from Wednesday's
events at the San Gregorio training grounds, according to German Army
Gen. Hans-Lothar Domroese, Trident Juncture's commander.
On
Monday, Alexander Grushko, Moscow's permanent representative to NATO,
told the Rossiya-24 television channel that the "key process underway"
at NATO these days is military planning that he said indicates the
U.S.-led alliance is moving "from the policy of partnership to the
policy of containing Russia."
The exercises, which end Nov. 6,
will test the new, ultrafast-response "spearhead force" of 5,000 ground
troops that has been created to reinforce NATO allies under threat in as
little as two days. The war games, which took two years of planning,
were rejiggered to add areas where many NATO officials say the alliance
has been deficient, including defending against cyberattack.
Even
if Trident Juncture is deemed a success, some observers say NATO must
do more to adapt. Retired Adm. James Stavridis, dean of The Fletcher
School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and former NATO supreme
allied commander, said he has been discouraged by the alliance's "tepid
response to Syria," inadequate cyber-defense measures and the continuing
reluctance of many European allies to spend more on their militaries.
When it comes to NATO's success
in remaking itself, the former supreme commander said, "if you want a
letter grade, I'd say a B minus."
In
the Romanian capital of Bucharest, leaders and representatives of nine
Eastern European NATO member nations called Wednesday for an increased
U.S. presence in Europe to boost security in response to Russia's
annexation of Ukraine and threats from the Islamic State.
No comments:
Post a Comment