Nato launches live field exercise

NATO launched its biggest exercise since the Cold War in Norway yesterday – involving around 50 000 soldiers, 10 000 vehicles and more than 300 aircraft and ships – to practise the alliance’s response to an attack on one of its members.

The exercise, code-named Trident Juncture, centres on a “fictitious aggressor,” Nato secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg said on Wednesday, while noting that “the lessons we learn will be real”.

Nato will be testing capabilities developed in response to Russia’s new posture since its 2014 invasion of Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula and subsequent actions seen as efforts to destabilise the Western security architecture.

“Europe’s security environment has significantly deteriorated,” Stoltenberg noted, adding that Nato has responded with the “biggest adaptation of our collective defence since the end of the Cold War”.

All 29 allies, as well as partners Sweden and Finland, will take part in the live field exercise, which runs until November 7 and involves land, sea, air and cyber capabilities.

“All forces have arrived and are in their respective areas,” Norwegian military spokesperson Ivar Moen said on Wednesday.

Russia has accepted an invitation to send observers to Norway, a move that Stoltenberg welcomed.

Earlier this year, Russia organised a massive operation in the east of its territory, code-named Vostok.