NATO And Russia: Overview of Rival War Games

NATO And Russia: Overview of Rival War Games

Question : Rivalry between NATO and Russia has never been stronger. Provide an overview of the war games hosted by the two former Cold War rivals.

NATO’s War Games

• NATO on May 26, 2015 launched the Arctic Challenge exercise

• This is based in the north of Norway, Finland and Sweden

• Exercise involves 115 fighter planes and 3600 troops from 9 nations

• Participant nations included NATO members such as US, UK, France, Germany and the Netherlands and Switzerland

• This is the second such exercise; first such war game was conducted in 2013

Russia’s War Games

• Russia on 26th May 2015 commenced a 4 day massive military exercise to check combat readiness

• Exercise involved 12,000 soldiers and around 250 planes, including long range bombers carrying cruise missiles

• Russian military exercise has raised a debate when conducted in accordance with the Arctic Challenge exercise

Facts and Stats

Russian Military Versus the NATO: A Comparison in Numbers

• Russia has 766,055 frontline troops compared to 1.4m in the US and 146,980 in the UK

• Russia has 15,398 tanks as against 8,848 tanks in the US and 407 tanks in the UK

• As far as self propelled artillery is concerned, Russia has 5972 as against 1934 in the US and 89 in the UK

• MLRS/Multiple launch rocket systems are 3793 in number in Russia as against 1331 in the US and 42 in the UK

• Exercises by NATO will continue till June 4th

• They will be followed on June 5th by NATP yearly Baltops (Baltic Operations) manoeuvres with 4,500 troops from 17 countries