Major air defense exercise starts in Germany, effect on civilian flights unclear

BERLIN (AP) — An air deployment exercise billed as the biggest in NATO’s history and hosted by Germany is getting underway. The exercise was long-planned but serves to showcase the alliance’s capabilities amid high tensions with Russia. The Air Defender 23 exercise is set to run from Monday through June 23, with 10,000 participants and 250 aircraft from 25 nations responding to a simulated attack on a NATO member. The United States alone is sending 2,000 U.S. Air National Guard personnel and about 100 aircraft. Germany’s air force chief says he proposed the exercise in 2018, reasoning that Russia’s annexation of Crimea underlined the need to be able to defend NATO.