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United States Ambassador to Germany Amy Gutmann, centre, German air force chief Lieutenant General Ingo Gerhartz, left, and U.S. Air National Guard Director Lieutenant General Michael A. Loh, right, arrive for a news conference on the Air Defender military exercise in Berlin, Germany, Wednesday, June 7, 2023.
NATO allies in Germany prepared for an unprecedented air deployment exercise over Europe today in what US diplomats said was a warning to Russia’s Vladimir Putin.
German and US officials said that the Air Defender 23 exercise starting next week will involve 10,000 participants and 250 aircraft from 25 nations responding to a simulated attack on a Nato member country.
The United States alone is sending 2,000 Air National Guard personnel and about 100 aircraft to take part in the June 12-23 training manoeuvres.
In the first half of a two-part article, PETER MERTENS looks at how Nato’s €800 billion ‘Readiness 2030’ plan serves Washington’s pivot to the Pacific, forcing Europeans to dismantle social security and slash pensions to fund it
Meanwhile, Nato foreign ministers debate increased weapons spending as police investigate the bloc’s purchases of military equipment