Poland to Host NATO-Led Dragon-24 Drills Involving 20,000 Troops - General Staff
20240206
WARSAW (Sputnik) - Poland will host the NATO-led Dragon-24 drills on February 25, involving some 20,000 troops and 3,500 units of equipment, the Polish General Staff announced on Tuesday.
"The Dragon-24 exercise will begin on February 25. Around 20,000 soldiers from Poland and allied states, 3,500 units of equipment [will participate]," the general staff said on X (former Twitter).
Dragon-24 is aimed at testing Polish armed forces' ability to respond to a potential multifaceted military crisis, it added.
Dragon-24 is part of the NATO Steadfast Defender exercise that kicked off in January. It is the alliance's largest military exercise in recent decades, which will run until the end of May. The drills, which are taking place in the Atlantic and Europe, involve some 90,000 troops from 31 allies and Sweden.
During the exercise, the allies are planning to test out a conflict scenario against a "near-peer adversary" in accordance with Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty, which states that an attack on one ally is considered an attack against the entire NATO and allows for the provision of appropriate assistance.
In January, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko told Sputnik that the scale of Steadfast Defender-2024 marks the final and irrevocable return of the alliance to the Cold War schemes to counter Russia. These exercises are another element of the hybrid war unleashed by the West against Russia, he added.
© Sputnik
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
