NATO will start an annual nuclear exercise as Russia threatens Ukraine's Western backers

BRUSSELS -- BRUSSELS (AP) — NATO will hold a long-planned major nuclear exercise next week, the alliance’s chief said Thursday, a few weeks after President Vladimir Putin announced changes to Russia’s nuclear doctrine to discourage Ukraine’s Western allies from supporting attacks on his country.

The “Steadfast Noon” exercise starts on Monday and will run for about two weeks. It will be led by Belgium and the Netherlands, use eight military bases and involve 2,000 personnel and 60 aircraft from 13 nations. The exercise has been held at roughly the same time each year for over a decade.

Bomber aircraft and fighter jets that can carry nuclear warheads are taking part. No live munitions are used. The bulk of the exercise is being held around 900 kilometers (560 miles) from Russia in the North Sea. Moscow has been informed about the drills, NATO officials say.

"In an uncertain world, it is vital that we test our defence and that we strengthen our defence so that our adversaries know that NATO is ready and is able to respond to any threat,” new NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte told reporters in London.

The United States and the U.K., with their strategic nuclear forces, are key to NATO’s security deterrence. France also has nuclear weapons but is not a part of the organization’s nuclear planning group.

Angus Lapsley, NATO Assistant Secretary General for Defense Policy and Planning, said the exercise is aimed at proving that the alliance’s ability to counter any threat to its 32 member countries is credible and something that “any adversary would need to take extremely seriously indeed.”

Lapsley said that NATO has been monitoring the emergence of North Korea as a nuclear power, the rapid expansion of China’s nuclear capabilities and developments in Iran — “but obviously what worries us most is Russia.”

He said Moscow has been investing in its nuclear forces “with accelerating intensity” over the last two years, and that it is “introducing lots of novel systems and putting more emphasis on investment in short and intermediate range weapons systems.”

Lapsley noted that Moscow has recently been “talking an awful lot about their nuclear doctrine and how that may or not be evolving.” He said that it appears to be “a pretty clear attempt to influence us” when it comes to support for Ukraine.

Putin and other Kremlin voices have frequently threatened the West with Russia’s nuclear arsenal. In a strong, new warning late last month, Putin said that a conventional attack on Russia by any country with the support of a nuclear power will be considered a joint attack.

The threat was meant to dissuade the U.S. and its allies from allowing Ukraine to strike into Russian territory with longer-range weapons and appears to significantly lower the threshold for the possible use of Russia’s nuclear arsenal. But NATO has not seen any real change in Moscow’s nuclear posture.

Taking office on Oct. 1, Rutte stressed that while Putin’s nuclear rhetoric was “reckless and irresponsible,” there was no evidence of any imminent threat of nuclear weapons being used.

Rutte said it's important to just leave Putin to “talk about his nuclear arsenal. He wants us also to discuss his nuclear arsenal, and I think we shouldn’t.”

At the same time, Rutte said, giving in to any threat “would set a precedent that using military force allows a country to get what it wants, and we cannot do that.”

Daniel Bunch, the Chief of Nuclear Operations at NATO’s military headquarters, said that while dozens of aircraft are involved, a lot of the drill is happening behind the scenes.

“Under Steadfast Noon we seek to stress the overall system; put people in tough positions, high operations tempos,” Bunch said. He said that the challenge of coordinating things “literally down to the minute of when we would put a weapon onto a target is a very complex activity.”