U.S. Navy F18 jets are parked at Hohn Air Force Base. They will take part in the exercise "Air Defender 23". © Markus Scholz/dpa
In the "Air Defender 2023" maneuver with hundreds of aircraft, Berlin's allies will practice the transfer of their air forces to Germany.
Jakarta/Berlin – One week before the major air force exercise "Air Defender 2023", Defense Minister Boris Pistorius has emphasized the importance for the security of Germany and its allies. At the same time, the SPD politician said on Monday on the sidelines of a trip to Asia: "Of course, we are doing everything we can to keep the impact on the population and civil aviation as low as possible. To this end, we have been coordinating very closely with all parties involved for months."
From 12 June to 23 June, 25 nations and 10,000 soldiers with 250 aircraft, including 70 aircraft from Germany, will take part in the "Air Defender" manoeuvre under German leadership. NATO is involved. Training flights also take off from the Bavarian Lechfeld Air Base in the Augsburg district.
Air Defender 2023: Huge maneuver under German leadership
With "Air Defender 2023" as "the largest deployment exercise of air forces since NATO was founded, we are strengthening the alliance and transatlantic relations. Together with our allies, we are demonstrating that we can defend the alliance's territory in a responsive and powerful manner," said Pistorius, who visited the Indonesian capital Jakarta on Monday.
Air forces can be deployed quickly in a crisis due to their range and speed. In particular, the transfer across the Atlantic from the USA with about 100 aircraft shows how reinforcements are brought in.
"Scenarios such as fighting drones or cruise missiles are practiced. And also the defense of airports as well as seaports," said a spokesman for the Air Force. It is trained how a fictitious attack by an eastern aggressor (referred to as occasus) on the alliance territory – here on Germany – is jointly repelled by the NATO allies. In the airspace over Swabia, however, air refueling is to be rehearsed.
Air Defender 2023: maneuvers to transfer air forces to Germany
In this scenario, NATO's years-long confrontation with Occasus has reached the soil of the Federal Republic. "Special forces of the Brückner organization and other troops of Occasus could be smuggled into Germany from the east. Now air and ground forces are occupying the entire Klebius region, about a quarter of the country," the Bundeswehr writes. The Occasus Alliance is trying to advance north to the Baltic Sea and take possession of the port of Rostock. In doing so, they use a mixture of sabotage actions and the use of special forces supported from the air. The fictitious consequence is that the Western alliance triggers a state of defense under Article 5 of the NATO Treaty.
Despite prior agreements and technical simulations to reduce disruptions, effects on civil aviation are unavoidable, according to the letter from Wissing and Pistorius. Simulations by the Eurocontrol organization are said to have shown that total delays of up to 50,000 minutes can be expected daily for the duration of the large-scale exercise, but then other factors such as violent thunderstorms would have to be added. (Carsten Hoffmann)
