NATO: launch of the largest military exercise since the Cold War

The USS Gunston Hall, a US transport and landing ship, left Virginia port on Wednesday for an Atlantic crossing to Europe. It will be followed before the end of the month by a Canadian ship, NATO said.

Steadfast, which will mobilize up to 90,000 soldiers on both sides of the Atlantic, must, among other things, verify the Alliance's ability to quickly mobilize and transport American troops to "strengthen the defense of Europe", according to this press release.

These maneuvers, which will extend over several months from the Atlantic to NATO's eastern flank, will take the form of a conflict scenario against an "adversary of comparable size", according to the Alliance's terminology, which designates thus, without naming it, Russia, whose large-scale offensive in Ukraine began almost two years ago.

Some 50 warships, 80 aircraft, and 1,100 combat vehicles will take part in this largest exercise since “Reforger” in 1988, amid the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the Atlantic Alliance.