NATO is holding a major drill in the frigid fjords of northern Norway that is meant to sharpen the combat skills of the newly expanded 32-nation military alliance, according to WAtoday.
In holding the largest exercises since the Cold War, NATO is sending an unambiguous message to Russia that its members are committed to defending each other if necessary.
With the conflict between Russia and Ukraine now in its third year, NATO is trying to take into account all possible options, which could potentially include attempts to take troops by surprise.
So this week, crew members of the French frigate Normandie, one of France’s most modern warships, were awakened from sleep and rushed to track and destroy a submarine that had sneaked into cold Norwegian waters, which belongs to Germany, also a NATO member. But as part of a wargame called Nordic Response 2024, it was acting as an enemy vessel.
The Normandie spotted a periscope poking through the waves and sprang into action. The crew was determined to prevent the Normandie, a first-class vessel only in service since 2020, from also being attacked.
An urgent call at 7a.m. prompted the Normandie’s commander, Captain Thomas Vuong, to rise from his bunk. He also noted that the Normandie’s crew of 146 sailors had not received prior warning of the German U-boat “attack” to test their readiness in the inhospitable environment above the Arctic Circle.
Further, he ordered the frigate’s submarine-hunting helicopter to be prepared for flight and woke its pilot. Once in the air, the frigate’s NH90 Normandie helicopter hovered above the waves and lowered its sonar into the sea to detect submarines. The frigate also used its sonar and together they located the submarine and took turns “attacking” it.
“Intelligence confirmed to us that there were no friendly submarines in the sector, so we were certain that it was an enemy submarine,” the helicopter pilot, Lieutenant Olivier, recounted.
NATO now includes Finland, which joined in April 2023, and Sweden, which joined the alliance earlier this week, marking a historic step for the two countries in breaking their neutrality. The drills in the northern regions of Finland, Norway and Sweden feature over 20,000 soldiers from 13 countries. They are part of a larger exercise called Steadfast Defender 24. It is NATO’s largest exercise in decades and will involve up to 90,000 troops over several months.
