NATO is gearing up for its largest military drills since the end of the Cold War, with 90,000 troops expected to take part in the Western security alliance’s exercise across Europe next week.
The military drill, called Steadfast Defender 24, will begin next week and run until May, with all 31 nations in the alliance participating in the exercise. Sweden, a candidate for NATO that has yet to be ratified to accession, will also participate.
Gen. Christopher Cavoli, commander of U.S. Europe Command and supreme allied commander Europe for NATO, said the alliance needs to “rehearse and refine our plans through rigorous training and exercises.”
“The alliance will demonstrate its ability to reinforce the Euro-Atlantic area via trans-Atlantic movement of forces from North America,” Cavoli said in a press briefing Thursday. “This reinforcement will occur during a simulated emerging conflict scenario against a near-peer adversary.”
“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 exercise is expected to include the mobilization of warships and other naval assets, along with ground-based vehicles and aircraft, including F-35s, FA-18s, harriers, F-15s, helicopters and drones.
While the large-scale deployment is part of regular NATO drills, it comes nearly two years into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and amid heightened alert in Europe that the war will expand.
The deployment of tens of thousands of troops is expected to send a message to Moscow and other adversaries that the alliance is prepared to defend its borders.
U.K. Defense Secretary Grant Shapps announced his country would send 20,000 troops for the exercises and said the drills would serve as “vital reassurance against the Putin menace,” referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“We are in a new era and we must be prepared to deter our enemies, prepared to lead our allies and prepared to defend our nation whenever the call comes,” he said in a speech earlier this month. “Adversaries are busily rebuilding their barriers. Old enemies are reanimated. Battle lines are being redrawn.”
“The tanks are literally on Ukraine’s lawn,” Shapps added. “And the foundations of the world order are being shaken to their core. We stand at a crossroads.”