The drill, code-named Steadfast Jazz 2013, began on Saturday and will wrap up on November 9. It will be held in Poland, the former Soviet republic of Latvia, and in the Baltic Sea.
According to the Western military alliance, the exercise — NATO’s largest since 2006 — will be rehearsing how to oust an anonymous invading enemy from a fictitious region.
“The purpose of this exercise is to make sure that our rapid reaction force, the NATO Response Force, is ready to defend any ally, deploy anywhere and deal with any threat,” NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said.
Around 350 vehicles, including armored personnel carriers, infantry fighting vehicles, engineering vehicles, trucks and all-wheel drive vehicles, 1,000 mechanized infantries, a chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) battalion, an airborne anti-tank company, around 11 surface vessels and one submarine as well as 46 fighter jets and 11 helicopters are participating in the war games.
