NATO kicked off the active phase
of its massive Steadfast Defender 2024 drills on Thursday,
with the more than four month-long drills set to last
until the end of May.
Preparations for the drills began
in late January with the transfer of weapons and equipment
from North America to Europe via supply ship, including
the US Navy landing ship Gunston Hall, which left Norfolk
last Wednesday, and Canada’s Charlottetown supply ship,
which left Halifax, Nova Scotia days later.
The drills will be split into two
parts – the first taking place from February 1 and
March 15 and consisting mainly of naval exercises,
and the second kicking off on February 12 to May 31
in a demonstration of the alliance’s “multi-domain
capabilities” on the ground, at sea, in the air, in space
and in cyberspace.
The drills will involve some
90,000 troops
from all 31 NATO countries plus Sweden (which is set to
join the alliance later this year following the Turkish
parliament’s approval of its membership bid last week),
and will take place across the trans-Atlantic area, and
constitute “the largest NATO exercises
since the
end of the Cold War.”
Military equipment involved will
include over 1,100 combat vehicles,
among them nearly 150 tanks and over 900 infantry fighting
vehicles, armored personnel carriers and support
equipment. In the air, drills will feature 80 aircraft,
including F-15, F/A-18 and F-35 fighter jets, helicopters
and what the Pentagon has said will be a “myriad” of
drones. At sea, the exercises are set to incorporate over
50 warships, ranging from aircraft carriers and destroyers
to frigates and corvettes.