WASHINGTON —
The world's preeminent defensive alliance is readying to demonstrate its capabilities in its largest exercise since 2002, said Navy Adm. James Foggo, the commander of NATO's Allied Joint Force Command in Italy.
Foggo, who held a Pentagon news conference Friday, will command Exercise Trident Juncture, which will run from Oct. 25 to Nov. 7 in Norway and surrounding sea and air spaces.
The exercise brings together 45,000 personnel from the 29 NATO allies, and partner nations Sweden and Finland. “Allies are contributing about 150 aircraft over 60 ships and 10,000 rolling or tracked vehicles,” Foggo said.
The purpose of the exercise is to test alliance readiness and responsiveness. “Let me emphasize that this is an exercise,” he said. “This is for training, but it is real because the lessons we learned are very real and they'll benefit us in our desire to become more resilient and stronger together as an alliance.”
Simply holding the exercise and demonstrating the capabilities of NATO has a deterrent effect, the admiral said.
NATO has invited observers to the exercise including Russia. “Exercises like this show that NATO is strong,” he said. “Together, we're more effective at upholding our common values and preserving peace. Trident Juncture will prove that in this very unpredictable world … NATO…
