10,000 soldiers, 250 planes and 25 nations. The largest air maneuvers in the history of NATO began this Monday in Germany and will take place until June 23, significantly affecting air traffic over the host country. 90% of the exercises will take place over German airspace and its coasts in the North Sea and the Baltic. The maneuvers are intended to demonstrate that, in an emergency, the Atlantic Alliance “is capable of reacting quickly,” according to the Luftwaffe Inspector, Lieutenant General and head of the German Air Force Ingo Gerhartz.
There are differing opinions about the effects of the exercises on civil air traffic over Germany. “At the most it will be a matter of minutes,” Gerhartz said, commenting on potential flight delays for commercial aircraft. The maneuvers also take place before the start of the summer holidays in Germany, which entail a sharp increase in civilian flights. The German air traffic controllers union GdF is not so optimistic. Its president, Matthias Maas, warned that the exercises “will naturally have massive effects on the development of civil aviation.”
In order to avoid suspensions of flights or diversions to other airports, the German Ministries of Defense and Transport have asked the governments of the 16 federal states to relax the schedules that prohibit night landing operations to allow the arrival of civil aircraft operating late. due to exercises. Airports such as Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Hamburg and Düsseldorf have already received authorization to extend their hours. The exercises take place over three air regions, part of northern Germany and the North Sea, the eastern part of the country and the Baltic, and southwestern Germany.
dummy attack
The participating planes will face and repel a fictitious attack by an enemy from Eastern Europe. The “Air Defender 2023” exercises were already planned in 2018, years before the last invasion of Ukraine by Russia in February 2022 and have nothing to do with the conflict, although they will be a show of force before the Kremlin at a time when that its relations with the West are going through their worst moment in decades. Among the participating countries there are also non-NATO nations such as Japan and others, such as Sweden, that have not yet joined the organization.
The exercises began at the German military airfield in Wunstorf, near Hanover, where he is in the central command post. The United States contributes more than a hundred aircraft to the maneuvers, while Germany will put another 70 planes in the air. Spain adds to the exercises four Eurofighter Typhoon type fighters that are based at the Bavarian military airfield of Neuburg. NATO will exhibit practically all the aircraft models of its fleet, from fighters like the F35, F16 or Tornado to air control planes like the Awacs and flying gas stations for refueling in the air like the KC46, as well as transport devices like the Airbus A400M.
“We are going to show that NATO territory is our red line. That we are prepared to defend every inch of this territory,” said the lieutenant general who is coordinating the exercises. During these, no less than 2,000 flights will take place, mainly from Wunstdorf, but also from other military airbases such as Schleswig Jagel in northern Germany or Lechfeld in the south. For the United States, it represents the largest movement of personnel and air material to Europe since the Atlantic Alliance existed, said the commander of the 175th Air National Guard based in Maryland, who arrived in Germany with a good part of his troops.
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