The 25 October 2018 officially began the NATO exercise called "Trident Juncture 2018". It consists of two "phases". The first, more properly "operational" between the 25 October and the November 7 and the second "computer simulation" will end the November 23. In all, "Trident Juncture 2018" saw the deployment of military 51.000, 250 aircraft, 65 ships and 10.000 land vehicles. Noteworthy that, in addition to all NATO countries, "Trident Juncture 2018" also saw the participation of the armed forces of Sweden and Finland, formally neutral countries that are not part of the Atlantic Alliance.
In particular, on the Finnish side of the Baltic Sea, Germany completed, on October 29, a secondary branch of the exercise that involved 3.600 men, 40 naval units and 30 aircrafts belonging to the Bundeswehr in order to improve coordination between their own armed forces and those of Finland. Even the Swedish airspace was the scene of maneuvers, as was the island of Gotland (of which, moreover, the Swedish government recently announced its re-militarization). However, the main venue for the "war games" was undoubtedly Norway, which provided 27 with military polygons at various locations.
According to data published by the Ministry of Defense of the Kingdom of Norway, the exercise "Trident Juncture 2018" involved the preparation of 50 fields located around the exercise areas and equipped with a total of 35.000 beds. 2 millions of hot meals were also served and 5 millions of water bottles were distributed, along with 660 tons of clothing.
Beyond the imposing logistical effort and possible inconvenience for the local populations, Norway has also been able to benefit from an economic gain from this exercise, in fact the subcontracts signed by various Norwegian companies engaged in the preparation and management of the event have yielded about 1,5 billion crowns. Beyond the business itself, the real purpose of the exercise was to test the operational readiness of Alliance departments and their ability to provide support to NATO members and partners who might be under attack by a foreign power.
Needless to say, the stone guest at the center of all the official statements issued by the Alliance's civil and military leaders in this time frame was Russia, which had in turn flexed its muscles during the exercise. Vostok 2018. Despite the ostentatious statements about the "defensive" nature of the exercise, more than one voice in Russia has expressed its own abdominal pains regarding NATO maneuvers. Finally, it was the turn of the Deputy Foreign Minister, Aleksander Grushko, to give voice to the official position of the country stating that: "Today it is clear to everyone that if we go back to talking about Russia-NATO relations, there could be no restoration to normality unless NATO renounces its aggressive policy".
(photo: Nato / Armée de l'air - video: Allied Joint Force Command Naples)
