A series of training events is taking place in eastern Europe.
NATO and regional Allies are involved in a series of training events in eastern Europe that go under the name of Allied Shield.
Allied Shield is a series of exercises that includes:
Exercise NOBLE JUMP, the first training deployment of Allied high-readiness units under the new Very High Readiness Joint Task Force (VJTF) framework.
BALTOPS, a major Allied naval exercise in Poland that sees the involvement of the U.S. Air Force Global Strike Command’s B-52 Stratofortress bombers deployed to RAF Fairford, in UK, as well as NATO AWACS, US F-16s used as OPFOR (opposing forces), P-3 and P-8 Maritime patrol aircraft, German Tornados, Swedish Gripen and US KC-135 tankers.
SABER STRIKE, a big land exercise with forces scattered across the Baltic States.
TRIDENT JOUST, a NRF (NATO Response Force) command and control exercise in Romania.
According to NATO, approximately 15,000 troops from 19 different allied countries and 3 partner nations are taking part (or about to) in this series of training events whose purposes are “defensive and are a part of NATO’s assurance measures in response to challenges on NATO’s southern and eastern periphery.”
In other words, these are just some of the measures NATO has taken in the region to reassure local allies threatened by Russia.
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Image credit: de Volkskrant
