(I posted it all because it's a government doc, and it belongs to us)
NATO Begins Largest Exercise Since Cold War Jan. 25, 2024 | By Jim Garamone , DOD News |
Over the next six months, thousands of U.S. service members will participate in the largest NATO exercise since the end of the Cold War. Dubbed Exercise Steadfast Defender 24, it will feature about 90,000 service members from the 31 NATO allies and Sweden. It will test the ability of the alliance to quickly deploy forces and will test NATO's new defense plans, officials said.
"The alliance will demonstrate its ability to reinforce the Euro-Atlantic area via trans-Atlantic movement of forces from North America," said Army Gen. Christopher G. Cavoli, NATO's Supreme Allied Commander Europe, in a press release. "Steadfast Defender 2024 will be a clear demonstration of our unity, strength and determination to protect each other, our values and the rules-based international order."
The first movement in the exercise began yesterday as the dock landing ship USS Gunston Hall sailed from Norfolk, Virginia. Following a series of operations, the ship will sail across the Atlantic.
The overall exercise will run through June. It is NATO's principal multidomain exercise for 2024 and will consist of a series of national and multinational large-scale, live exercises conducted across various geographical locations.
Officials said Steadfast Defender is the largest exercise since the last Reforger exercise in 1988.
The exercise is the first, large-scale test of alliance defense plans approved at last year's Vilnius Summit in Lithuania.
At its base, the exercise is a demonstration of alliance unity and determination to defend every inch of NATO territory. The exercise will demonstrate "NATO's ability to deploy, move and use reinforcements from North America and other parts of the alliance to continental Europe," alliance officials said. "It will show that we can conduct and sustain complex multidomain operations over several months, across thousands of kilometers, from the high north to central and Eastern Europe and in any conditions."
The exercise will take place primarily in Finland, Estonia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Sweden and the United Kingdom, officials said. There will be more than 50 naval assets, including aircraft carriers, destroyers, frigates and corvettes.
Air assets will include F-35s, FA-18s, Harriers, F-15s, helicopters and myriad unmanned aerial vehicles.
There will also be more than 1,100 combat vehicles, including more than 150 tanks, 500 infantry fighting vehicles and 400 armored personnel carriers.
Officials said the exercise is based on a fictitious Article 5 scenario "triggered by a fictitious attack against the alliance launched by a near-peer adversary," officials said. "NATO exercises are not directed against any country. In an unpredictable security environment, we must remain ready to deter all threats and to defend all allies."
Still, Russia has launched the largest war in Europe since World War II, attacking neighboring Ukraine. Since Russia first invaded Ukraine in 2014, NATO has strengthened defense and deterrence on the continent. While Steadfast Defender has been in planned for years, the exercise incorporates defense plans based on Russia's actions.
"Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine will shape our understanding of conflict for years to come," a NATO official said. "NATO is observing the conflict in Ukraine closely in order to improve our readiness and refine our future training, capabilities and innovation."
The people of the Donbas would like a word.
Some ironic stuff going on right now. A lot of the soldiers from Donbass were miners in a previous life. They know how to dig tunnels and make them safe to navigate re: ventilation, shoring etc. When one sees memes of winning with shovels this is what they are talking about. It is for example, why it was so hard to take Soledar (salt mines).
Case in point is the old soviet tunnel that was a sewer near Avdeevka, that led to the Tsar's Hunt restaurant. The sudden popping up of fighters behind the lines even fooled some cartographers who were still thinking in 2D.
Futhermore, I think underground warfare is a developing thing now, with all the overhead drone and satellite surveillance that is now available to both sides.
Exactly...its all fog of war. Technology has changed modern warfare. So the only future option is underground. There has to be an opening to the tunnel, control the opening, you control what goes in, can be seen etc. Its much easier to defend a small opening/openings. Drones are effective b/c no openings; 100% open terrain. Furthermore b/c its so hard to "see" anything underground its all fog of war. This gives back competitive advantages that have been made obsolete by modern warfare.
I doubt anyone remembers the game Civ. But it was wildly accurate in some regards. The game was fun until everyone reached the modern age. At that point warfare became difficult, if not impossible to deliver crushing defeats. This was due to diminishing returns on the technological advancements. In the beginning the bow overpowered the club, musket over longbow, rifleman over mustketman etc. But each escalation that advantage is reduced. We are now in that modern era. Going underground, at least for now minimizes these advantages. This is just the tip of the iceberg of a much deeper conversation but hopefully
All these "exercises" are a show of bravado and nothing more. Who are all these tanks/troops going to fight? Warfare has changed. Nukes/drones/stealth etc have changed it all. It is all just to create the illusion of safety in a heavily controlled world. We are slaves...the great awakening is about waking up to that fact and giving power back to we the people.
Of course the question could be raised have good people ever truly been in power (yes I know loaded as all mankind is sinful)? I would argue we've been controlled by evil since the fall when Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit. I think there is something so much deeper about this great awakening that we will soon come to find out. Pick a side if you have not already; he will come like a thief in the night and the day will be upon you quickly. Look up 1 Thessalonians 5 & Hebrews 10:31. But truly I think we are on the pinnacle of some really big revelations that many will not be able to handle. I have faith though; because God is in control, and as we know God wins in the end.
Amen.
One of the un-anticipated consequences of all-seeing eyes-on warfare is that large, and expensive equipment are prize targets. I even believe that Russians placed hulks at obvio places as decoys.
This is why the military exercises, if they project any form of large troop or materiel movements, are just silly.