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This type of exercise has often occurred in the deepest and darkest depths of the Cold War with the former Soviet Union.
In fact, it has been almost four years since the NATO countries as a whole performed complex organizational and logistical tasks, namely the task of rapidly moving troops and equipment across the potentially hostile Atlantic Ocean to strengthen Europe.
In the past two weeks, warships, submarines and aircraft belonging to the Western military alliance have adopted military exercises to keep sea lines of communication open during hostilities in Europe.
The exercise, called “Strong Defenders 2021”, was carried out in three phases.
The newly formed US Second Fleet is located in Norfolk, Virginia, and is responsible for the safe transportation of troops and equipment between North American and European ports. Most of the activities took place in the waters near Portugal.
“For most of my career, the Atlantic Ocean has been an uncontroversial space,” said Canadian Rear Admiral Steve Waddell, who led the maritime portion of the maritime exercise and served as the US Second Fleet with the Americans. Deputy commander. “Since the end of the Cold War, it has been fairly moderate in terms of the free flow of goods, trade and information.”
He said that due to the resurgence of competition among major powers in recent years, NATO believes that its members must be prepared to work together in the Atlantic theater, which may not be so mild in the future.
Just before the coronavirus pandemic in February 2020, the U.S. Navy conducted its own initial training exercises, focusing on organizing an escort team to assist Europe in an emergency – this was the first such exercise since 1986.
NATO exercises have taken this concept to a new level in the past two weeks, with 20 ships from 11 countries, including the Canadian frigate HMCS Halifax. More than 5,000 sailors, marines, pilots and other military personnel from the entire alliance participated in the exercise, and the first phase ended on Sunday.
Commanders and their ships run a variety of real-time scenarios, including scenarios for defending submarines. This reflects that NATO’s focus is to protect the transatlantic fiber optic cable through which most commercial activities in the Western world pass.
Defense analysts see these cables as strategic vulnerabilities, especially considering the dominance of the digital economy. Russia’s ability to tamper with these cables on the seabed is increasingly worrying.
“Today’s environment is multi-domain,” Waddell said. “We are not only considering the direct surface of water and the underwater surface of submarine operations. Now we consider [the domain] From the bottom of the sea to space. “
Other warships participating include Britain’s newest aircraft carrier, the USS Queen Elizabeth, equipped with F-35B stealth fighters.
The next phase of the exercise will test NATO’s ability to quickly coordinate and transport disembarked troops and equipment across Europe. At the same time, a 4,000-strong coalition high-security task force led by Turkey will be deployed to Romania to complete the exercise.
The exercise took place before the summit between US President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Russia recently announced that it would permanently deploy a large military force on its western border and restart the long-dormant Cold War military headquarters to control and coordinate these forces.
Although Russia may be watching the exercise closely, Wardle said the NATO fleet did not have any direct contact with the Russian military during the exercise.
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