Major air defence exercise starts in Germany, impact on civilian flights unclear

An air deployment exercise billed as the biggest in NATO’s history and hosted by Germany is getting underway on June 12

An air deployment exercise billed as the biggest in NATO’s history, and hosted by Germany, gets under way on June 12.

The long-planned Air Defender 23 exercise, which is set to continue till June 23, is expected to showcase the alliance’s capabilities amid high tensions with Russia.

Some 10,000 participants and 250 aircraft from 25 nations will respond to a simulated attack on a NATO member.

The United States alone is sending 2,000 U.S. Air National Guard personnel and about 100 aircraft.

“The exercise is a signal — a signal, above all to us, the NATO countries, but also to our population, that we are in a position to react very quickly — that we would be able to defend the alliance in case of attack,” German Air Force Chief Lt. Gen. Ingo Gerhartz told ZDF television.

Mr. Gerhartz said he proposed the exercise in 2018, reasoning that Russia's annexation of Crimea underlined the need to shore up NATO’s defences.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which began in February 2022, has jolted NATO into preparing in earnest for the possibility of an attack on its territory. Sweden, which is hoping to join the alliance, and Japan are also taking part in the exercise.