The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has announced they will be conducting their largest joint military exercise since the days of The Cold War, right on Russia’s doorstep.
The Financial Times broke the news on Monday, signaling that the Steadfast Defender NATO war drills, slated for early 2024, around February and March, are primed to be the ‘biggest live joint command exercise since the cold war next year, assembling more than 40,000 troops to practice how the alliance would attempt to repel Russian aggression against one of its members,’ The FT wrote.
The exercise will take in and around the Baltic Sea, near the Russian homeland. The drills reportedly are designed to demonstrate “to Moscow that the alliance is prepared to fight,” The FT reports citing NATO officials.
It will start in spring next year and is expected to involve between 500 and 700 air combat missions, more than 50 ships, and about 41,000 troops.
It is designed to model potential maneuvers against an enemy modelled on a coalition led by Russia, named Occasus for the purposes of the drill.
The cited NATO officials claimed
ZeroHedge added, ‘Crucially, the Baltic Sea coastline – where NATO has increasingly flexed its military might with more and more exercises – is very important to Russia as its strategic Kaliningrad exclave sits on it, sandwiched between two NATO members, Poland and Lithuania. Last year’s Defender drills had been the largest up to that point, and they continue to get expanded year-by-year.’
NATO has steadily increased its control of the Baltic Sea — a crucial maritime gateway for the Russian fleet which has bases near St. Petersburg and in the heavily militarized Kaliningrad exclave.
Politico wrote in July
This new comes after NATO just launched a military exercise in the Baltic Sea – something their latest Nordic allies in Sweden and Finland grant the alliance.
According to a press release from NATO’s website:
Some 30 warships and 3,200 personnel from 14 nations will participate in the annual two-week naval exercise Northern Coasts, which starts on Saturday (9 September 2023) in the Baltic Sea, primarily off the coasts of Estonia and Latvia. Led by the German Navy, Northern Coasts is one of the biggest exercises in the region, and is focusing for the first time on high-end warfare and the collective defence of NATO Allies.
Over the coming two weeks, Allies will train amphibious operations, air defence, strikes from sea to land, and securing sea lanes. Standing NATO Maritime Group One and Standing NATO Mine Countermeasures Group One are participating in the manoeuvres, which involve personnel from Allies Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, the U.S. and NATO invitee Sweden. Held annually, the exercise is being run for the first time from Germany’s new Navy Command in Rostock.
Seven – soon to be eight – NATO Allies border the Baltic Sea, so the area is of crucial importance to our Alliance. Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine has radically altered the security situation in the Baltic Sea, and NATO has substantially increased its defensive presence in the region at sea, on land and in the air.
Exercises like these send a clear message that NATO stands ready to defend every inch of Allied territory.
Acting NATO Spokesperson Dylan White, said
Moreover, this announcement comes after Aleksey Danilov, the Security Chief for Ukraine, that World War III “has already begun,” and is no longer in a “hybrid state.”
According to a blog post from NATO, the organization views a “hybrid threat” as:
Hybrid threats combine military and non-military as well as covert and overt means, including disinformation, cyber attacks, economic pressure, deployment of irregular armed groups and use of regular forces. Hybrid methods are used to blur the lines between war and peace, and attempt to sow doubt in the minds of target populations. They aim to destabilise and undermine societies.
The speed, scale and intensity of hybrid threats have increased in recent years. Being prepared to prevent, counter and respond to hybrid attacks, whether by state or non-state actors, is a top priority for NATO.
For example, the Russian Federation uses sophisticated hybrid strategies, including political interference, malicious cyber activities, economic pressure and coercion, subversion, aggression and annexation. Coercive military posture and rhetoric are also used as part of the Russian Federation’s hybrid strategies to pursue its political goals and undermine the rules-based international order.
The People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) malicious hybrid and cyber operations and its confrontational rhetoric and disinformation target Allies and harm Alliance security. For example, the PRC seeks to control key technological and industrial sectors, critical infrastructure, and strategic materials and supply chains. It uses its economic leverage to create strategic dependencies and enhance its influence.
AUTHOR COMMENTARY
[6] And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. [7] For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. [8] All these are the beginning of sorrows. Matthew 24:6-8
As to be expected, the warmongers only seek to further this war with Russia, to enrich the crimelords and mafia bosses of the military industrial complex.
NATO is nothing more than a paper dragon. The NATO nations are already running out of basic munitions and weapons, because they have wasted a lot of it on Ukraine and had not recouped their gifts. Europe and the United States is woefully weaker than it’s ever been.
[7] Who goeth a warfare any time at his own charges? who planteth a vineyard, and eateth not of the fruit thereof? or who feedeth a flock, and eateth not of the milk of the flock? [8] Say I these things as a man? or saith not the law the same also? [9] For it is written in the law of Moses, Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn. Doth God take care for oxen? [10] Or saith he it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written: that he that ploweth should plow in hope; and that he that thresheth in hope should be partaker of his hope. (1 Corinthians 9:7-10).
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America and NATO are going to lose. Chances are, that Cold War will become a hot one.