So far this year, and ahead of next week’s NATO summit in Belgium, the commanders of the Pentagon’s Unified Combatant Commands and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg have denounced and thundered against Russia and China as rivals and adversaries in every part of...
After NATO Summit, Turkey’s Erdoğan To Visit Nagorno-Karabakh
On June 9 Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced that after attending the NATO summit in Belgium on June 14, where he will once again be fêted as the guardian of NATO’s southern flank, he will pick up his brother (his exact word) Azerbaijani President Ilham...
High-End Warfare: US, NATO End Live-Fire Space War/Star Wars Drills in Arctic
“Several live-fire and simulated engagements against subsonic, supersonic, and ballistic targets demonstrations will take place during the exercise, including the first defensive live-intercept of a ballistic missile using multinational data systems to track the...
Pentagon Chief: NATO Ready To Fight and Win if Deterrence Fails
Two days ago President Joe Biden, a staunch war hawk and NATO champion for half a century (no one before has become head of state in any nation with a résumé remotely approximating his in those regards) and Raytheon’s favorite defense chief Lloyd Austin III met with...
Major NATO Build-Up in Romania as Black Sea Conflict with Russia Worsens
The U.S. is funding a $152-million construction project in Romania to transform the air base in Câmpia Turzii into a “new major hub for NATO aircraft in the Black Sea region,” in the words of a report from Balkan Insight of last month. The U.S. has deployed warplanes...
NATO Carrier Strike Groups Train Together in Mediterranean War Games
NATO has announced that the French nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle, Britain’s new HMS Queen Elizabeth aircraft carrier, their attached multinational carrier strike groups and additional warships and warplanes from other NATO nations have completed...
As Russia Watches: US Conducts Artillery Exercise in Norwegian Arctic as Part of 50-Day Drills
U.S. Army Europe and Africa is conducting a series of field artillery exercises as part of 50-day drills in Europe and Africa “to exercise the rapid deployment of long-range precision fires and joint forcible entry fires across two continents from the Baltics to Black...
NATO Chief Meets Biden, Pentagon Head; Blasts Russia for Aggression Against NATO States, Evokes Article 5 War Clause
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg met with President Joe Biden, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan on June 7, a week ahead of the military bloc’s summit in Brussels. The trip that brings Biden to NATO headquarters will be...
Pentagon, NATO Launch Jubilee War Games in Baltic Sea
The 50th iteration of the U.S./NATO-led Baltic Operations (BALTOPS) began on June 6 and will continue until June 18. With the Naval Striking and Support Forces NATO and Sixth Fleet (the two share a commander) at the head, this year’s exercise includes 40 military...
Targeting Iran, Strengthening NATO: US, British, Israeli, Italian F-35s in Unprecedented Air Combat Exercise
The twelve-day Falcon Strike 21 aerial war games commenced in earnest today out of the Amendola Air Base in Italy. The exercise is led by the Italian Air Force and is described by U.S. Air Forces in Europe and Air Forces Africa as designed for the integration of 4th...