Germany has hosted in its skies since yesterday and for twelve days the most important air maneuvers in the history of NATO, in an ostensible demonstration of force against Russia in the context of the war in Ukraine. In the exercise, dubbed Air Defender 23 and planned and coordinated by the German Luftwaffe, 25 countries - including Spain - are taking part, with 250 aircraft and around 10,000 military personnel deployed.
In this way, the allies practice the joint air response to a simulated attack against a member of the Atlantic Alliance (in this case, Germany), but NATO is not officially the organizer of the maneuvers. The Bundeswehr (German armed forces) proposed the exercise in 2018, i.e. before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, but when there was already a war in Donbass and Russian President Vladimir Putin had already annexed Crimea illegally. According to the Luftwaffe, it is "the largest air force redeployment exercise since the founding of NATO and one of the largest air force exercises in Europe since the end of the Cold War."
At a press conference in Berlin last week, Lt. Gen. Michael A. Loh, director of the US Air National Guard, argued that, “despite the Air Defender being purely defensive by design, the strategic message of 25 nations that associate in defense of Europe and the demonstration of Western values goes far beyond a simple aerial exercise”.
Germany contributes 70 aircraft, and Spain participates with four Eurofighter Typhoon fighters, stationed with the pilots at the Bavarian airfield in Neuburg.
At the Berlin hearing, US Ambassador to Berlin Amy Gutmann said it was an impressive exercise and that she would be very surprised "if any world leader didn't take note of what it shows in terms of the spirit and strength of this alliance," including Russian President Putin.
More cautiously, Lieutenant General Ingo Gerhartz, Inspector General of the German Air Force, recalled that NATO is a defensive alliance, so Air Defender 23 is also a “defensive exercise to demonstrate that the alliance is capable of defend itself if it had to", and pointed out that "it is not directed against anyone" and, therefore, "for example, no flight will be made in the direction of Kaliningrad", the Russian enclave that borders Poland and Lithuania, NATO members.
However, even if there is no direct connection to the war in Ukraine, these large-scale maneuvers are "in the current situation a very important signal, of course," admitted Gerhartz.
The allies will measure the air response capacity to a war crisis, according to Article 5 of the NATO treaty, which stipulates that a military attack on one of its members is an attack on all, which must help, although not necessarily through a military response.
In Air Defender 23's scenario, a fictional military alliance in the east called Occasus attacks the Federal Republic of Germany by infiltrating special forces and other troops and occupying a fictional region of the country called Klebius. In this situation, as described by the Luftwaffe in the exercise scenario, an enemy advance towards the Baltic Sea to take possession of the port of Rostock would be foreseeable, and the joint air force must react to the advance.
Participants in the exercise: Germany, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Slovenia, Spain, the United States, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Japan (regular partner), Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, the Netherlands, Poland, the United Kingdom, Romania, Sweden (a country still in the process of joining NATO, but which has been participating in maneuvers for years) and Turkey.
As reported by the Luftwaffe itself, operations take place mainly in three airspaces that have been used for decades by the German Air Force for routine training (north of the country and the North Sea, east and the Baltic Sea, and south ), although expanded with ad hoc corridors, and in three different time slots, to interfere as little as possible with civil air traffic.
Organizers estimate there will be civil flight delays, but no cancellations.
Most Air Defender missions will be flown from the German bases of Jagel/Hohn (Schleswig-Holstein), Wunstorf (Lower Saxony) and Lechfeld (Bavaria). The flight altitude ranges from 2,500 meters to 15,000 meters or more, and the estimated number of flights will be two thousand until June 23. Among the equipment of the exercise, there are F-16, Eurofighter, Awacs and Falcon fighters, among other models.
