Trident Juncture 2018: 70 warships will take part in NATO maneuvers

This will be one of the largest NATO exercises in history. For comparison: 36 thousand people and 60 ships participated in the previous edition of Trident Juncture in 2015.

This year's edition of the exercise will be attended by 29 NATO Member States, as well as Sweden and Finland, which are the Alliance's partner countries.

The main operations of the Trident Juncture 2018 exercise will be performed in areas on land in Norway and in the Baltic and North Atlantic Sea. The maneuvers will officially begin on October 25 and will run until November 7, but troops and equipment will be moved into place of exercises much earlier.

NATO reports that the tasks performed in the Trident Juncture 2018 exercise will include operations on the ground, sea and air.

Colonel Stephan Dirr of the Allied NATO Force Command in Naples stresses that this will be one of the most complex and comprehensive exercises the Alliance has carried out in the past 30 years.

The aim of the exercise is to test NATO's ability to plan and carry out a collective defense operation that covers a whole range of activities: from training soldiers to commanding large forces.

Admiral Haakon Bruun-Hanssen of the Norwegian Navy said that for Norway it would be a test of the ability to accept and handle additional troops and equipment. According to the commander, it will also be a test of the concept of defence of Norway, which includes the use of various types of armed forces and assumes the inclusion of many civil institutions in the defence.

Trident Juncture exercise 2018 will consist of two parts. The first is real actions using soldiers and military equipment, and the second is focused on command. The latter will be conducted at the Allied NATO Force Command in Naples between 14-23 November.

Signature: TZ