The main message of the alliance’s military exercises in Poland is “NATO is ready”.

Korzeniewo (Poland), March 4 (EFE).- Twenty thousand soldiers and three thousand five hundred units of equipment from 9 NATO countries, including Spain, demonstrated their response capacity this Monday in a military exercise in the strategic Vistula River. Involved crossing. Poland, with a clear objective: to demonstrate that the alliance is ready to withstand any attack.

This is Exercise Dragon-24, which is part of the largest military maneuvers conducted by NATO since the Cold War and which includes fourteen exercises under the code name ‘Steadfast Defender’ that will take place in Europe until next May.

More than three hundred meters wide separates one bank on the Vistula from the other. The objective of the exercise is clear: the Polish Armed Forces, with the support of military equipment and accompanied by more than 5,000 soldiers from allied countries, manage to transport tanks and troops from one place to another in the shortest time and without any trouble. should do. Strategic failure.

The result appears to be successful. The organizers are happy, as are the soldiers, which for many is their first experience in an exercise of this magnitude with other coalition countries.

“We hope our superiors are happy,” Cape Diloie, the group leader who directs one of the British ‘Amphibee M3’ fleet to move the tanks from one shore to the other, told EFE.

Other challenges included achieving successful integration and cooperation between 921 military vehicles and 20,000 soldiers from the nine participating countries: Germany, Poland, United Kingdom, United States, Spain, Turkey, France, Slovenia and Lithuania.

Thus, as Major General Randolph Stoudenras explained to the media, one of the main objectives was to allow Allied forces to train together to demonstrate their interoperability and joint response capability.

The exercise “demonstrates the cohesion and multidisciplinary operations that we all bring together as soldiers, sailors and airmen. It also demonstrates NATO’s capability,” said Stoudenras, who commented: ” “As NATO, we are stronger together.”

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Therefore, the Allied forces have completed the first part of Dragon-24, which included crossing this river. Now, they will begin a 300 kilometer strategic march towards Poland’s eastern border and NATO’s eastern border.

demonstrate NATO’s response capability

While the design for the exercise began to be drawn up before the outbreak of the Ukrainian war two years ago, NATO says the creation of the scenario was ultimately inspired by “lessons learned” from this conflict.

“The creation of the scenario for the exercises was inspired by the lessons learned from the Ukrainian War. The main hypothesis during planning was to reproduce as much as possible the situations that arose during the war according to the principle of ‘training while fighting'”, the organisers. Explain.

With it, the alliance wants to test its ability to respond to “military and non-military” threats during crises and open armed conflicts, but, above all, in the face of an “imaginary” enemy, which the authorities do not clearly recognize. Are, but what they consistently point to: Russia.

“The alliance is preparing against two potential threats: Russia and terrorism, but what we are doing in practice is showing an imaginary enemy,” NATO’s German general Gunnar assured EFE. “We are not preparing for war against.” Brugner.

With these exercises, NATO prepares to “protect” its members, as stated in the famous Article 5 of the treaty by which it was created, which guarantees collective defense in the event that the bloc One member receives a military attack from another country. ,

“Every ship that sails, every tank that rises and every plane that flies is sending a message. You must have the military capability, but also the willingness to use it. And you must have every inch of the alliance There must be a clear will to protect. That’s what we are seeing here today,” Brugner concluded.

With the aim of simulating a real conflict and guaranteeing civil and military cooperation, the design of the exercises involved the government, ranging from local, municipal and provincial administrations of Poland.

This series of maneuvers, gathered under the umbrella of ‘Steadfast Defender’, coincides with the 75th anniversary of the alliance, and will involve a total of 90,000 troops from all NATO countries and Sweden, testing their ability to resist aggression from a potential opponent. do. ,

Paula Garcia-Azofrin

(c) EFE Agency