The Astral Knight 2024 exercise, conducted by the USA, started in Europe with the participation of 5 thousand soldiers from six NATO countries. This was announced by US Department of Defense Deputy Press Secretary Sabrina Singh at a regular briefing for journalists, she writes TASS.
A Pentagon spokesman said the exercise is part of the Department of Defense’s large-scale global exercise program for 2024. More than 50 planes and other planes, as well as 5,000 military personnel from the USA, UK, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Estonia, will participate in the operations, which will last for two weeks from the beginning of the week.
The main purpose of the exercises is to strengthen joint air and missile defense.
Before this, more than a dozen military personnel were injured as a result of parachuting during NATO exercises in Sweden. Military personnel from the United States, Hungary and Italy were affected, according to Aftonbladet. The soldiers have fractures and wounds, but their lives are not in danger. Nine people were evacuated by helicopter, two were taken to hospital.
Previously recognizedWhen Sweden’s military integration into NATO is completed.