Brussels: Large-scale NATO nuclear exercises, dubbed “Steadfast Noon,” with the participation of 2,000 servicemen from 13 alliance countries and up to 60 military aircraft begin on Monday in northern Europe.
As NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte explained, the exercises will take place mainly in the UK, in the North Sea, as well as in Belgium and the Netherlands.
According to Rutte, these exercises should demonstrate to any adversary that NATO is ready to respond to any threat.
The drills are planned, they have been prepared for more than a year and no combat weapons will be used in the exercises, NATO said earlier.
The maneuvers will last two weeks. Eight airbases will be involved in them. In particular, various aircraft capable of carrying nuclear weapons, bombers, escort fighters and refueling aircraft, as well as reconnaissance and electronic warfare aircraft will take part in the exercises.
The NATO press service recalled that the alliance was constantly taking steps to ensure the reliability and effectiveness of nuclear deterrence forces. In particular, in 2024, new Dutch fighters F35A were recognized as fit for use in nuclear deterrence missions.
Despite the fact that NATO calls its exercises planned, anti-war organizations criticize their conduct in the context of international tensions.
In the NATO Strategic Concept, the alliance’s leaders confirmed that NATO would remain a nuclear alliance as long as nuclear weapons exist.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko said in an interview with Sputnik that Moscow took into account that in a military-technical sense, NATO was moving towards increasing the role of nuclear weapons in the alliance’s strategy. He recalled that former NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg had spoken some time ago about modernizing nuclear weapons, including US air bombs deployed in European countries.
According to the diplomat, Moscow takes into account “the entire set of factors influencing strategic stability, our security and defense capability” and for this purpose the process of updating the Fundamentals of the Russian State Policy in the Field of Nuclear Deterrence is currently underway.
Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier proposed discussing the issue of updating the principles of state policy in the field of nuclear deterrence at a meeting of the Russian Security Council’s standing conference on nuclear deterrence. Putin said that Russia reserved the right to use nuclear weapons in the event of aggression, including if the enemy, using conventional weapons, created a critical threat to sovereignty. He added that it was proposed to consider aggression by a non-nuclear state with the participation of a nuclear state as their joint attack on the Russian Federation.
