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In the “Air Defender 2023” maneuver with hundreds of aircraft, the allies of Berlin will practice moving their air forces to Germany.
Jakarta/Berlin – A week before the major air force exercise “Air Defender 2023”, Defense Minister Boris Pistorius emphasized the importance for the security of Germany and its allies. At the same time, the SPD politician said on Monday on the sidelines of a trip to Asia: “Of course we are doing everything we can to keep the effects on the population and civil air traffic as low as possible. We have been coordinating this very closely with everyone involved for months.”
From June 12 to June 23, 25 nations and 10,000 soldiers with 250 aircraft, including 70 aircraft from Germany, take part in the “Air Defender” maneuver under German leadership. NATO is involved. Training flights also start from the Bavarian air base Lechfeld in the district of Augsburg.
Air Defender 2023: Huge maneuver under German leadership
With “Air Defender 2023” as the “largest air force deployment exercise since NATO was founded, we are strengthening the alliance and transatlantic relations. Together with our allies, we are showing that we can react quickly and powerfully to defend alliance territory,” said Pistorius, who visited the Indonesian capital Jakarta on Monday.
Air forces can be deployed quickly in a crisis due to their range and speed. In particular, the transfer across the Atlantic from the USA with around 100 aircraft shows how reinforcements are brought in.
“Scenarios such as combating drones or cruise missiles are practiced. And also the defense of airports as well as seaports,” said an Air Force spokesman. It is trained how a fictitious attack by an eastern attacker (referred to as Occasus) on the alliance area – here on Germany – is repulsed by the NATO allies together. In the airspace over Swabia, however, primarily air refueling is to be rehearsed.
Air Defender 2023: maneuvers to transfer air forces to Germany
In the scenario, the years of confrontation between NATO and Occasus has reached the bottom of the Federal Republic. “Special forces from the Brückner organization and other troops from Occasus were able to smuggle into Germany from the east. Now air and ground forces are occupying the entire Klebius region, about a quarter of the country,” writes the Bundeswehr. The Occasus alliance is trying to push north towards the Baltic Sea and take possession of the port of Rostock. They use a mixture of sabotage actions and the use of special forces, which are supported from the air. The fictitious consequence: The western alliance triggers the defense case according to article 5 of the NATO treaty.
Despite prior agreements and technical simulations to reduce impairments, effects on civil air traffic are unavoidable, according to the letter from Wissing and Pistorius. Simulations by the organization Eurocontrol are said to have shown that for the duration of the large-scale exercise, daily delays of up to 50,000 minutes can be expected, although other factors such as heavy thunderstorms would then have to be added. (Carsten Hoffmann)
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