Large-scale NATO exercise on chemical war in Koksijde

According to Defense, it is important that all countries coordinate techniques and procedures against chemical warfare.

Dangerous way of waging war

A kind of mobile and armored military laboratory could be seen at the air base in Koksijde. In the scenario, a French drone aircraft had crashed and 2 soldiers were allegedly seriously injured on the chemically contaminated site. The German specialists proceeded very cautiously.

“That is normal. We are dealing with a neurotoxic agent here. That is something we know from the Second World War. It is a very dangerous product. It is also known from agriculture and extremely deadly. A small drop or a small inhalation can lead to death,” said Dirk Dons, jury member at Toxic Trip 2023 Koksijde.

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The nature of the soldiers’ injuries showed how dangerous chemical, bacteriological or even nuclear warfare can be. If everyone adheres to the conventions, this type of warfare should never happen.

“That is true. But in some cases, and then we often talk about so-called ‘non-state’ actors. They could use that and that could happen more and more, I fear.”

Experts from 18 countries

Jozef Vanden Broeck of Toxic Trip Koksijde: “These are all specialists from the CBRM world. CBRM stands for chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear. They are all specialists from that domain from 18 different countries. The idea is that they practice their techniques and coordinate each other. If it ever comes to that, they must be able to work together in an international conflict situation and do their work even better.”

The American army is also providing assistance, but teams of Korean specialists are also present. The exercise will continue until Thursday evening. To be clear: never with real chemical products.