NATO conducted a planned air exercise over Poland on Tuesday, with activity concentrated in the country’s northeast near Russia’s Kaliningrad exclave. NATO conducted a planned air exercise over Poland on Tuesday, with activity concentrated in the country’s northeast near Russia’s Kaliningrad exclave. The exercise involved US and Norwegian fighter aircraft, a NATO E-3A Sentry AWACS surveillance aircraft, aerial-refueling tankers and a US EA-37B electronic-warfare aircraft. Estimates of the number of aircraft involved ranged from about 25 to 50. Poland’s Operational Command said the activity was NATO-coordinated and unrelated to Russian air force movements. The exercise was intended to strengthen interoperability and practice joint air-operation scenarios. The flights came days after the German newspaper Bild reported details of a purported NATO Land Warfighting Concept for responding to a possible Russian attack on the Baltic states, including possible strikes on missile and air-defense systems in the Kaliningrad region. NATO has intensified exercises around the strategically vulnerable Suwałki Gap; in May, allied forces launched the Amber Shock 26 drills there. Reuben F. Johnson said NATO must remain prepared: “We’re in very uncharted territory.”
