NATO’s nuclear exercise ‘Steadfast Noon’ – in which air forces train with the nuclear deterrent capabilities – will run from today until Sunday 30 October. Belgium will host the exercise, but training flights will also take place over the North Sea and over the United Kingdom.
“The training flights will take place over Belgium, which will host the exercise, and over the North Sea and the United Kingdom,” NATO said in a press release, published Friday on the alliance’s website. According to sources, the Kleine-Brogel air base is used as a base.
It is remarkable that NATO communicates so openly about the annual nuclear exercise. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg had already announced that exercise last Tuesday, without specifying where it would take place. “To keep our deterrence safe and effective,” he said at the time.
Routine training
According to Stoltenberg, it would only send the wrong signal not to let the exercise go ahead, in view of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and President Vladimir Putin’s nuclear rhetoric. Russia is aware of the exercise, it also sounded. The alliance also reiterated on Friday that it is a routine training that takes place annually and is “not linked to current world events”.
Defense Minister Ludivine Dedonder confirmed last Thursday – in the margins of the meeting of NATO defense ministers at the headquarters of the treaty organization – that the exercise will take place in our airspace.
According to NATO, 14 countries and up to 60 aircraft are taking part. This concerns fourth and fifth generation fighter aircraft, but also observation and tanker aircraft and long-range bombers. The treaty organization also emphasizes that no real weapons will be used in the exercise.
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