NATO holds largest exercise since Cold War, mobilizing 90,000 troops

NATO is launching its biggest military exercise since the Cold War, preparing for the US military to reinforce European allies in countries bordering Russia and on the alliance’s eastern flank if conflict breaks out with a military “near-peer” enemy.

According to the AP news agency, next week NATO will launch its largest series of military exercises in decades, with about 90,000 troops participating in months-long exercises aimed at demonstrating that the alliance can defend its entire territory up to the border with Russia.

The exercise comes amid a stalemate in the conflict in Ukraine. NATO as an organization is not directly involved in the conflict, except to provide Kiev with non-lethal assistance, but many member states have sent weapons and ammunition either individually or in groups and provided military training.

Reuters news agency quoted NATO's Supreme Allied Commander, US General Christopher Cavoli, speaking to reporters on January 18 that about 90,000 soldiers will participate in the Steadfast Defender 2024 exercise, which will last from next week until May.

“The alliance will demonstrate its ability to reinforce the Euro-Atlantic region through the transatlantic movement of forces from North America,” General Cavoli said.

In the months before President Vladimir Putin ordered Russian troops into Ukraine in February 2022, NATO had begun to beef up security on its eastern flank with Russia and Ukraine. But this was the alliance’s largest mobilization since the Cold War.

According to the plan, more than 50 warships, ranging from aircraft carriers to destroyers, will participate in the exercise along with over 80 fighter jets, helicopters, drones, and at least 1,100 combat vehicles including 133 tanks and 533 infantry fighting vehicles.

Mr Cavoli said the exercise would rehearse NATO's implementation of its regional plans, the first defence plan the alliance has drawn up in decades, detailing how NATO would respond to an attack from the east.

NATO did not mention Russia by name in its announcement, but the alliance's flagship strategy document identifies Russia as the most direct and significant threat to the security of NATO members.

“Steadfast Defender 2024 will demonstrate NATO’s ability to rapidly deploy forces from North America and other alliance regions to reinforce European defense capabilities,” said a NATO representative.

The reinforcement will take place in a "simulated conflict scenario involving a near-peer adversary," General Cavoli told reporters in Brussels after a two-day meeting with the bloc's defence chiefs.

According to NATO, the alliance's last similar-sized exercise was Reforger – held during the Cold War in 1988 with 125,000 participants – and more recently Trident Juncture in 2018 with 50,000 troops.

Soldiers participating in “Steadfast Defender 2024” will come from NATO countries and Sweden, a country that hopes to join the alliance soon.

NATO allies signed off on the regional plans at a 2023 Vilnius summit, ending a long era in which NATO saw no need for large-scale defense plans as Western countries fought smaller wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and felt post-Soviet Russia did not pose an existential threat.

In the second part of the Steadfast Defender 2024 exercise, a particular focus will be on the deployment of NATO's rapid reaction force to Poland, a country on the alliance's eastern flank.

Other key locations for the exercise will be the Baltic states considered most at risk from a potential Russian attack; alongside Germany - the centre of reinforcements - and countries on the alliance's fringes such as Norway and Romania.