Allies train to resist security threats that persist during COVID crisis, NATO chief says

Although a major NATO land exercise was curtailed this year because of COVID-19, allied European nations wary of more classical threats have forged ahead with air and sea drills, officials said.

“Because the fact that we have a health crisis doesn’t mean that more traditional security threats disappear,” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters last week. “They are still there.”

While citing other malign international actors, Stoltenberg specifically mentioned Russian actions in and around Eastern Europe.

“Well, what we have seen is that Russia maintains military presence close to NATO borders and NATO countries, including in the Black Sea,” Stoltenberg said, later adding: “We see their significant military build-up that has taken place in Crimea, and we see also their naval presence in the Black Sea.”

“And,” he said, “we see a more assertive Russia continue to support the separatists in eastern Ukraine, which are violating the ceasefire again and again.”

Hence, when Defender-Europe 20, slated to be the U.S. Army's largest exercise in Europe in 25 years, was massively scaled back in March due to the coronavirus, allied international sea and air arms pressed on.

This month, the U.S. Navy dispatched the USS Donald Cook, a guided missile destroyer, to the Baltic Sea and the USS Porter, a destroyer, to the Black Sea. Each ship is working alongside European allies, with the USS Porter teaming up with the Romanian Navy. 

“NATO remains ready, vigilant, and prepared to respond to any threat,” said spokesperson Oana Lungescu in a statement. “While we continue to take all necessary measures to protect our forces, our operational readiness remains undiminished. These deployments show that NATO Allies are working closely together, determined to ensure that potential adversaries do not exploit the situation to further their interests."

Other international missions are underway in the realm of air policing. 

Today and tomorrow in Lithuania, Allied and partner aircrews are rehearsing drills over the Baltic Sea, in a thrice-yearly exercise named Ramstein Alloy. 

“All participants are flying in from their home bases,” a NATO Allied Air Command spokesman told Just the News in a statement. Participants include Belgian and Polish F-16’s, German Eurofighters and transport aircraft, and Finnish and Swedish fighters.

Among the Ramstein Alloy scenarios are a simulated crew ejection, search and rescue operations, and air-to-air refueling.

Britain’s Royal Air Force, meanwhile, is sending a detachment of 150 Typhoon combat jets to Lithuania, as part of the Baltic Air Policing Mission.

“We maintain our air policing missions, and we maintain our naval deployments, including in the Mediterranean and the Aegean Sea,” Stoltenberg said, emphasizing readiness amid pandemic. “So, if there is a need, NATO is able to deploy forces to respond to any threat and any challenge also in the midst of the coronavirus crisis.”

The drills go on conscious of reducing participants’ exposure to disease, Stoltenberg indicated, but focused on persistent threats.

“We were faced with them before the COVID-19 crisis, and we are faced with them during the COVID-19 crisis,” Stoltenberg said. “And I expect them to be there also after this crisis has ended.”