War games in Middle East to prepare UK for ‘potential’ Russian war with NATO
The
British Army is to deploy 1,600 troops in Jordan to take part in war
games as preparation for a potential ‘confrontation’ between Russia and
NATO member countries in Eastern Europe, the Daily Telegraph has
reported.
Army
sources told the paper that the exercise, which will simulate an Iraq
invasion for the first time in over a decade, is not a prelude to
sending ground troops to fight Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS, ISIL),
rather Exercise Shamal Storm could be seen as a practice routine to
fight off any potential Russian invasion of Ukraine or Eastern Europe.
“This
isn’t a counter-Isil exercise. If anything, this is much more about us
being prepared to join the US in Ukraine than it is in Syria,” a source
said as cited by the Daily Telegraph, adding, “This is not the sort of
kind of force you expect to roll into Aleppo to take on a bunch of
jihadists.”
The
aim of the exercise is to show, despite defense cuts, that the British
Army would still be able to deploy a 30,000-strong force, which would
include troops and military hardware, to any potential global hotspot.
In
January, around 80 military vehicles were sent from the UK, bound for
the Jordanian port of Aqaba. More than 300 will be used in total. The
exercise will be held in the southwestern desert area of the country,
while troops from three UK divisions will be taking part.
The
operation will look to simulate “theater entry tactics,” while also
setting up a field hospital and dealing with chemical and biological
weapons. It will be the biggest operation since 2001, when the British
Army held a large-scale drill in 2001 called Saif Sereea in Oman.
A
spokesman for the British Army told the Daily Telegraph: “The exercise
will test key evolving concepts such as the air deployment of a very
high readiness field hospital and the latest explosives ordnance
disposal and search capabilities, all of which will enable us to be more
agile in deterring threats to the UK and its interests.”
The
Russian government has on numerous occasions accused the West of
scaremongering. In July, President Vladimir Putin told the Italian
newspaper Corriere della Sera that a potential Russian attack on NATO
would be “insane,” adding that the alliance’s defense budget is 10 times
that of Moscow’s.
“I
think that only an insane person and only in a dream can imagine that
Russia would suddenly attack NATO. I think some countries are simply
taking advantage of people’s fears with regard to Russia. They just want
to play the role of front-line countries that should receive some
supplementary military, economic, financial or some other aid,” Putin
said.
Putin
stated that hypothetically the US may be looking to maintain a
hypothetical external threat in order to maintain its leadership of the
NATO community.
On
February 2, the Pentagon announced it wanted to quadruple its budget
for Europe from $789 million to $3.4 billion in 2017, in order to deter
“Russian aggression.”
The
budget boost is expected to allow more US forces to be stationed in
Europe and for them to take part in more training and exercise routines
with local troops in Central and Eastern Europe.
“While
we do not desire conflict of any kind with any of these nations – and
let me be clear, though they pose some similar defense challenges they
are very different nations and situations – we also cannot blind
ourselves to the actions they appear to choose to pursue,” US Secretary
of Defense Ashton Carter said.
NATO
has significantly increased its military presence along Russia’s
borders, including in the Baltic States and Eastern Europe, since
Russia’s reunification with Crimea in 2014 and the outbreak of conflict
in eastern Ukraine. The alliance accuses Moscow of providing support to
Ukrainian rebels, who rejected the armed coup in Kiev.
In
late August and September 2015, NATO conducted the biggest airborne
drills in Europe since the end of the Cold War. About 5,000 soldiers
from 11 NATO member states participated in the “simultaneous
multinational airborne operations.”
Russia’s
national security chief Nikolay Patrushev accused Washington of trying
to weaken Russia and did not exclude the US of wanting to break up the
country.
“The
US leadership has set an objective – to dominate the world. Therefore
they don’t need a strong Russia. On the contrary, they want to weaken
our country as much as possible,” the head of Russia’s Security Council
said in January.
He also added that NATO’s expansion towards Russia’s borders poses a threat to Moscow’s national security.
“To
understand NATO’s objectives, one needs to realize that NATO’s
leadership strictly sticks to the US agenda. Washington skillfully uses
the anti-Russian stance of its eastern members to neutralize
‘excessively independent’ members of the alliance (France, Germany and
Italy).”
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