Finland and Sweden, which long kept an official veneer of neutrality to avoid conflict with Moscow, both sought membership in NATO after Russia’s February 2022 invasion.
Under NATO’s Article Five, an attack on one member is considered an attack on all.
“GREAT POWER COMPETITION”
The exercise will include operational and tactical-level training, primarily in Germany, but also in the Czech Republic, Estonia and Latvia. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz will visit pilots based at the Schleswig-Jagel airfield in northern Germany on Friday.
General Michael Loh, director of the US Air National Guard, said NATO’s duties were at an “inflection point”.
“A great deal has changed on the strategic landscape throughout the world, especially here in Europe,” he said.
The exercise will focus on “supplementing the permanent United States presence in Europe” as well as providing training “on a larger scale than what was usually accomplished on the continent”, Loh added.
He said many of the alliance pilots would be working together for the first time.
“It’s about fostering the old relationships that we have but also building new ones with this younger generation of airmen,” he said.
“And so this is about now establishing what it means to go against a great power in a great power competition.”
Gutmann said that while there were no plans to make “Air Defender” a recurring exercise, she added: “We have no desire for this to be the last.”
Asked about potential disruption to civilian air transport during the exercise, Gerhartz said the planners would do “everything in our power” to limit flight delays or cancellations.
German authorities had warned that flight schedules could be impacted by the drills.
Source: CNA
