Germany hosts in its sky since Monday and for twelve days the largest air maneuver in the history of NATO, in an ostensible show of force against Russia in the context of the war in Ukraine. In the exercise, baptized as Air Defender 23 and planned and coordinated by the German Luftwaffe, 25 countries – including Spain – participate with a total of 250 aircraft and some 10,000 soldiers deployed.

The allies thus practice the joint air response to a simulated attack against a member country of the Atlantic Alliance (in this case Germany), although NATO is not officially the organizer of the maneuvers. The Bundeswehr (German armed forces) proposed this exercise in 2018, that is, before the Russian invasion of Ukraine but when there was already a war in Donbass and Putin had illegally annexed Crimea. According to the Luftwaffe, it is “the largest air force redeployment exercise since the founding of NATO and one of the largest air force exercises in Europe since the end of the Cold War.”

At a press conference in Berlin last week, Lt. Gen. Michael A. Loh, director of the US Air National Guard, argued that “although Air Defender is purely defensive by design, the 25-nation strategic message that is being They associate in defense of Europe and the demonstration of Western values ​​goes far beyond a simple aerial exercise”. The United States is the country that has moved the most devices for the exercise, a hundred.

Next to him, the American ambassador in Berlin, Amy Gutmann, affirmed that this is an impressive exercise and that she would be very surprised “if any world leader did not take note of what this demonstrates in terms of the spirit of this alliance, which amounts to to the strength of this alliance,” including Russian President Vladimir Putin.

More cautious, Lieutenant General Ingo Gerhartz, inspector general of the German Air Force, recalled that NATO is a defensive alliance, so Air Defender 2023 is also a “defensive exercise to show that this alliance is capable of defending itself if it had to.” to do it”, and pointed out that “it is not directed against anyone”. However, even if there is no direct connection to the war in Ukraine, these large-scale maneuvers are “in the current situation a very important signal, of course,” Gerhartz admitted.

The allies will measure their air response capacity to a war crisis, based on article 5 of the NATO treaty, which stipulates that a military attack on one of its members is an attack on all, who must come to its aid.

In the scenario posed by Air Defender 23, a fictional military alliance in the east called Occasus attacks the Federal Republic of Germany infiltrating special forces and other troops and occupying a fictional region of the country called Klebius. In such a situation, as described by the Luftwaffe in the exercise scenario, an enemy advance towards the Baltic Sea to take possession of the port of Rostock would be foreseeable, and the joint air force must react to this advance.

As reported by the Luftwaffe, operations are carried out mainly in three airspaces that have been used for decades by the German Air Force for routine training (north of the country and North Sea, east and Baltic Sea, and south), although expanded with ad hoc corridors, and in three different time slots, to interfere as little as possible with civil air traffic. The organizers calculate that there will be delays in civil flights, but not cancellations.

Most Air Defender missions will be flown from the bases of Jagel/Hohn (Schleswig-Holstein), Wunstorf (Lower Saxony) and Lechfeld (Bavaria). Some teams will depart and train from Volkel (Netherlands) and Čáslav (Czech Republic). The flight altitude ranges from 2,500 meters to 15,000 meters or more; and the estimated number of flights is two thousand until June 23. The exercise apparatus included F-16, Eurofighter, Awacs and Falcon fighters, among other models.

Participating in the Air Defender exercise are: Germany, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Slovenia, Spain, the United States, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Countries The Netherlands, Poland, the United Kingdom, Romania, Sweden (a country still in the process of joining NATO, but which has participated in maneuvers for years) and Turkey. The displaced Spanish soldiers are stationed at the Neuburg air base (Bavaria).