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Largest War Game Since The Cold War Launched By NATO In Eastern Europe

By Jinger Jarrett
Published on: 04:56 PST, Jun 7, 2016

As tensions escalate between the United States and Russia, the largest war game since the Cold War was launched by NATO. Poland and its NATO partners launched the exercise with the purpose of shoring up the eastern flank of the NATO alliance. Tensions between the United States and Russia have continued to escalate as Russia accused the U.S. of mounting an increasingly more aggressive military presence in the region.

The Telegraph reported that the largest war game included 31,000 soldiers and 24 alliance members. The exercise is expected to last two weeks and is aimed at testing the defenses on the western flank. Named Anaconda, the exercise was kicked off by Polish Defence Minister Antoni Macierewicz in a formal ceremony in Warsaw.

As previously reported in Inquisitr, fighter jets were sent to Europe to participate in training with NATO allies. The planes were part of the 95th Fighter Squadron assigned to Tyndall Air Base in Florida. The U. S. government is planning to add additional funds to provide for defenses in Europe.

A U.S. ship was also buzzed by Russian jets while training in the Baltic Sea. The jets flew 30 feet over the deck of the USS Donald Cook in a simulated attack. The buzz occurred at the same time that a Polish helicopter was taking off from the deck of the ship.

The 31,000 troops participating in largest war game since the Cold War consists of 14,000 troops from the U.S., while 12,000 Polish soldiers and 1,000 soldiers from Great Britain will also participate in the exercise. It will also require using 3,000 vehicles, 105 planes, and 12 naval vessels.

The largest war game comes one month before NATO plans a summit in Warsaw to seal its largest revamp since the Cold War ended. It will require deploying more troops in rotations to reassure eastern European members who were spooked by the 2014 annexation of the Ukraine by Russia. The Russian government has been fiercely opposed to the move by NATO.

U. S. News & World Report said that the largest war game since the Cold War has led to increased tensions between the U. S. and Russia. The war game began in Poland, which is a former Warsaw Pact country. It follows an increased number of troops in the area, brought by both NATO and Russian forces. U. S. Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter said the move was meant to keep the Russian President Vladimir Putin within his national borders.

Carter said that the goal wasn’t to make an enemy of Russia. The U.S. was simply defending its allies.

“Moscow’s nuclear saber-rattling raises troubling questions about Russia’s leaders’ commitment to strategic stability, their respect for norms against the use of nuclear weapons, and whether they respect the profound caution that nuclear-age leaders showed with regard to brandishing nuclear weapons.”

Last month after the U. S. extended the defense shield over Romania, Putin reacted with hostility over the move. He said that NATO was fending off Russia with vague statements that the moves are no threat to Russia. The U.S. claimed that the moves were in reaction to Iran’s nuclear program, something that Putin claimed didn’t exist. The largest war game is further evidence of western concern of Russian aggression.

[Photo by Keystone/Getty Images]

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