An this Monday, Steadfast Noon, NATO’s annual nuclear weapons exercise, begins. As announced by the alliance, the fourteen participating countries, including Germany, will practice with up to sixty military aircraft over Belgium, the North Sea and the United Kingdom. In view of the Russian threats to use nuclear weapons, the alliance actively and proactively provided information about the maneuver this year in order to avoid mistakes in Moscow, but also to demonstrate its operational readiness. “NATO’s resolute, predictable behavior, our military strength, is the best way to avoid escalation,” Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said last week.
The exercise, which lasts until the end of the month, is held in the second half of October each year. The host is always one of the five European states of the so-called “nuclear sharing”, this year Belgium with the military airfield Kleine Brogel. There, as well as in Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Turkey, American nuclear bombs of the type B61 are stored, a total of around 100, experts estimate. They are guarded by American personnel and, in an emergency, assembled under combat aircraft from the participating countries. Germany uses the Tornado fighter-bomber for this purpose, while Tactical Air Force Squadron 33 is trained in Büchel for nuclear missions and is now taking part in the exercise again.
As usual, the squadrons in red attacking and blue defending teams will practice air combat and simulate the dropping of the nukes. The pilots have to fly a special manoeuvre, the so-called shoulder throw, in order not to be caught by the explosion wave even when flying low. When the conversion to self-guided bombs is completed in 2025, this will no longer be necessary. As in previous years, Steadfast Noon will again feature long-range B-52 strategic bombers from America, this time from North Dakota. They are designed for nuclear missiles that can be deployed at high altitudes.
