US plays minor role in NATO exercise designed to counter evolving Russian threats

Aboard a NATO warship off the coast of Italy, America’s allies are conducting a military exercise, simulating what could happen in the event of a possible conflict with Russia.

On Thursday, a News themezone crew was flown by helicopter with the Italian military to HMS Prince of Wales, a British aircraft carrier deployed in the Mediterranean Sea, where there are 26 American-made F-35 fighter jets.

The military exercise, Neptune Strike, brings together the United States with nine of its allies (including the United Kingdom, Greece, Poland and Turkey) practicing long-range strikes on NATO’s eastern flank, hitting training camps near Russia.

The goal of the exercise is to defend critical waterways like the Mediterranean, which connects Europe to Africa and the Middle East, and carries about 30% of the world’s oil traffic, according to the United Nations.

exercise arrives while Russia tests the US-led alliance with frequent raids in NATO airspace using drones and fighter jets.

“I see those activities as being aimed at stressing the alliance,” Gen. Alexus Grynkewich, head of US European Command and NATO’s supreme allied commander in Europe, told News themezone.

Grynkewich, a four-star general in charge of about 80,000 American troops, has said NATO must be prepared to fight simultaneous conflicts with Russia and China by 2027.

“Of course, we don’t expect that outcome, but you have to be prepared for any contingency,” Grynkewich told News themezone, adding that war with one or both superpowers is “not at all” inevitable.

“Our main objective is to prevent that conflict from happening,” Grynkewich said.

While the United States has participated in previous iterations of the military exercise, this year’s U.S. footprint was smaller as the Trump administration puts pressure on allied nations. put more in European defense. Going back to his first term, Trump has repeatedly pushed for NATO members to increase their defense spending to at least 5% of their respective GDPs.

The pentagon also announced last month that it was reducing the number of US troops deployed in Eastern Europe.

That said, B-52s from the US Air Force Bomber Task Force were deployed for this year’s exercise.

Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine has dragged it into a military quagmire that has cost hundreds of thousands of lives.

“The war in Ukraine has taught us that now, more than ever, the NATO alliance is incredibly important,” said Lt. Col. Mike Carty, a British fighter pilot and Royal Air Force squadron commander.

Carty said NATO is watching and learning from what is happening in Ukraine.

“An element of that was designed to destabilize Europe and destabilize NATO,” Carty said of the Russian invasion.

But Carty maintains that the attack “has had the opposite effect.”

Grynkewich told News themezone that NATO is ready to fight war today if necessary, but that preparation is the best deterrent to any adversary.