NATO Launches Largest Exercises Since Cold War

The North Atlantic Alliance is set to commence its largest exercises in decades, named Steadfast Defender 2024, on January 22. These four-month exercises simulate a conflict with a "near-peer adversary" and are expected to involve approximately 90,000 personnel.

All NATO member countries, as well as candidate member Sweden, will participate in the exercises. Running until the end of May, the operations will encompass European territory from Norway to Romania. According to the DPA agency, the scenario for the Steadfast Defender exercises revolves around a Russian attack on allied territory, invoking Article 5 of NATO's collective defense treaty.

Until now, the largest exercises in recent decades were considered to be Trident Juncture, which involved more than 50,000 troops in 2018. The last comparable exercises conducted by NATO took place in 1988, engaging over 125,000 soldiers.

In addition, more than 50 ships, ranging from aircraft carriers to destroyers, will be involved, along with over 80 fighter jets, helicopters, and drones, as well as at least 1,100 armored vehicles, including 133 tanks and 533 infantry fighting vehicles.

As stated by NATO's Supreme Allied Commander Europe, General Christopher Cavoli, the exercises will demonstrate that NATO can conduct complex operations on land, at sea, in the air, in cyberspace, and in space, providing support "over several months, across thousands of kilometers, from the far north to central and eastern Europe, under any conditions."

NATO Military Committee Chairman Rob Bauer emphasized that the scale of such exercises represents a new demonstration of the alliance's readiness. "This is a record number of troops that we can deploy to carry out exercises of this magnitude—across the entire alliance, over the ocean, from the U.S. to Europe," he stated. Furthermore, the military committee chairman pointed out that war is not solely a military affair, noting, "When it comes to war, as we see in Ukraine, it affects society as a whole."