NATO Members’ Major Air Exercise Sends Message to Russia

Stephan Weil, president of the Lower Saxony region of Germany — where the Wunstorf Air Base is located — called the exercise “necessary.”

“That is certainly much clearer today than when it was first planned,” Mr. Weil said. “Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, we know that the European security architecture, as we have assumed it for decades, no longer functions, and that national defense must therefore have a much greater significance.”

At core, however, the Air Defender drills appear intended to show President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia the risks of pushing NATO too far.

”I’d be very surprised, shall we say, if the alliance wasn’t kind of looking at this as part of its overall messaging strategy,” said Mr. Barrie, the analyst in London.

The American ambassador to Germany, Amy Gutmann, predicted that leaders around the world would most likely be paying attention — and “that includes Mr. Putin.”

Many of the skills that will be tested over the coming days in Germany have been honed by Western pilots and air support crews over the past 20 years, especially in wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, said Col. Rusty Ballard, commander of the Air National Guard’s 182nd Airlift Wing, based in Peoria, Ill.

But at some points on Monday, a three-layered formation of fighter jets, bombers and cargo planes was flying more than 10,000 feet off the ground, and even some of the seasoned pilots found the coordination a little daunting. “Mental gymnastics” was how Flt. Lt. Mark Jenkins of the British Royal Air Force put it.