Demonstrating muscles: Against the backdrop of developments in the war in Ukraine, NATO will hold the largest air exercise in its history next week.
The exercise will take place over German skies and will involve 10,000 soldiers from 25 countries that are members of the Western military alliance, as well as 220 aircraft of various models, 100 of which will arrive from the United States. Among the planes will be fighter, transport and refueling aircraft, Eurofighter aircraft, F-35 and the veteran A-10 attack aircraft.
The objectives of the exercise are combat operational training as well as improving and expanding cooperation between Member States in the event that one of the Allied countries is attacked. Although the huge exercise was scheduled for 2018, in light of the Russian aggression in Ukraine, the Alliance is now preparing for the possibility that Russia will also attack one of the alliance's members near its border.
Norwegian Air Force F-35s, photo: AP
The military exercise will take place in northern, eastern and southern Germany between June 12 and June 23 and is expected to cause significant delays in civilian air transportation, mainly over Germany but also in the skies of its neighbors, such as the Czech Republic and the Netherlands.
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