For the first time in decades, the United States sent a carrier strike group north of the Arctic Circle to participate in the war games. […]
Bolstering the U.S. NATO presence in Norway is welcome news for Foreign Minister Ine Eriksen Soreide. ”What we saw was that NATO, over many years, had been engaged heavily, for instance, in Afghanistan,” she tells Martin. ”That’s a very important mission but we also saw that some of the, I would say core areas of, of NATO, the territorial defense… had not the same attention over the years.”
That changed last October when the 2018 Trident Juncture, a NATO joint-exercise aimed at repulsing an invasion of Norway, included the added firepower of the U.S. aircraft carrier Harry S. Truman and its escort vessels. It was the first time a U.S. carrier had operated above the Arctic Circle in nearly 30 years. The carrier strike group was part of a response force of 50,000 troops, 250 aircraft and 65 ships under the command of Admiral James Foggo. Trident Juncture was one of the largest NATO exercises since the Cold War and there was a reason for that says the admiral. ”The message to Russia or anybody else that may want to challenge the alliance is think twice. You don’t want to mess with us.” Läs artikel