An experiment carried out on a large scale, and a strong signal sent to the Kremlin.
NATO announced Thursday the launch next week of a vast military exercise, the largest “in decades”, which will last several months and involve some 90,000 Alliance soldiers.
Operation Steadfast Defender is expected to begin in February.
“This will be a clear demonstration of our unity, our strength and our determination to protect each other,” declared the Supreme Allied Commander in Europe (Saceur), American General Christopher Cavoli, as he approached two years since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
What is the objective of the exercise?
According to the German television channel ZDF, senior military representatives of the defense alliance in Brussels, the scenario of the exercise is a Russian attack on allied territory.
The founding treaty of NATO in fact enshrines the principle of collective defense, according to which any attack against one of the member countries - 31 today - is supposed to result in a collective response from the organization.
In short, an armed attack against one or more allies is considered an attack against all.
The exercise is seen as a key element aimed at showing Russia that the Alliance is ready to take up arms, NATO officials told the Financial Times last September.
For almost two years, Ukraine, which is not a member of NATO, has repelled an attack from Russia thanks in particular to military aid provided by NATO countries.
What resources are mobilized?
NATO wants to mobilize around 90,000 soldiers for this major deterrence maneuver which will begin in February.
The alert and deployment of national and multinational land forces should be particularly trained, according to the German press.
Last September, the Financial Times reported that this exercise would be held between Germany, Poland and the Baltic States (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania).
Some 50 warships, 80 aircraft and 1,100 combat vehicles of all kinds will take part.
This is the most important “war game” since the “Reforger” exercise in 1988, then in the middle of the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the Atlantic Alliance.
“This is a record in terms of the number of soldiers,” said Dutch Admiral Rob Bauer, head of the NATO military committee, which brings together heads of state, during the same press conference. majority of the 31 member countries of the organization.
All the soldiers should come from the 31 member countries of the Alliance without exception, as well as Sweden, in the process of joining the alliance, according to the FT.
This exercise will take the form of a conflict scenario against an “adversary of comparable size”, according to NATO terminology, thus designating Russia without naming it.
It will notably include the reinforcement on the European continent of troops “from North America”, General Cavoli said.
What precedents?
The exercise is billed as the military alliance's most important since the end of the Cold War.
Until now, the record was held by a NATO operation in 2018 focused on Norway.
50,000 soldiers were then involved.
Before the fall of the Berlin Wall, on the other hand, the organization was accustomed to large-scale exercises.
In 1988, for example, some 125,000 soldiers were involved in a series of maneuvers in Germany.
What role for France?
The operation will be an opportunity to observe the role of France, in search of credibility in the eyes of its allies.
Furthermore, Paris took command on Thursday during a ceremony in Lille for one year of a multinational NATO land force of up to 120,000 men, likely to be deployed in the event of an alert concerning one of his members.
“The war in Ukraine (…) reminds us that we must be ready, ready to put all our strength into our collective deterrence efforts, to dissuade our enemy, our adversary, from disturbing the peace,” underlined General Gaulin, commander of the French Rapid Reaction Corps (CRR-Fr), during the ceremony, warning that “anything is possible, even the unthinkable”.
The CRR-Fr has around 450 soldiers of 14 nationalities.
It is the only multinational headquarters of the Army, operational and deployable, which carries out missions for France, NATO and the European Union.
In 2022, the CRR-Fr had already taken command for NATO of the NRF, the reaction force of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, involving the deployment of 20,000 men.