NATO’s largest military exercises ever, Trident Juncture, are currently underway in Norway.
NATO’s joint-forces exercises run from October 25th-November 7th and involve:
50,000 troops from NATO’s 29 member countries (plus Sweden & Finland), 10,000 vehicles, 250 aircraft, 65 ships and more.
These are live field exercises. Fictitious but realistic war games. Insiders say it’s a global display of readiness by NATO Response Force (NRF).
In Trident Juncture, NATO forces are battling “Murinus,” a fake country.
War games like TJ, give forces the opportunity to experience simulations and plausible scenarios, sort of like practice chess games.
The USS Harry Truman ($4.5 billion dollar, 330 foot long aircraft carrier) with its crew of 6,000 troops was brought in, becoming the first American aircraft carrier to travel to the Arctic since the Soviet breakup.
NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, was created in 1949 and is headquartered in Brussels, Belgium.
Originally formed to defend Western Europe against Soviet Russia, NATO has grown to promote a sizable mission of global stability.
Founded on the concept of “Collective Defense,” if one NATO ally is attacked anywhere, then ALL NATO allies will respond immediately.
Who belongs to NATO?
Albania, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Montenegro, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
NATO’s “operational domains” are land, sea, air and yes, cyberspace.
Currently, Russia is building up forces in the Baltic region and in March 2018, Vladimir Putin announced Russia had a nuclear-powered cruise missile with unlimited range.
In September 2018, Russia held it’s largest-ever war games, the Vostok War Games, which involved 300,000 Russian & Chinese soldiers.
U.S. Marines have been permanently deployed to Norway ever since Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine back in 2014.
NATO Trident Juncture
https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/157833.htm
NATO Allied Command Transformation (ACT) based in Norfolk, Virginia
