Air Force may deploy F-22 warplanes near Russia's border

Source : http://www.presstv.ir

The United States is planning to send warplanes to Europe in order to stop Russia’s “aggression” in the region, says US Air Force Secretary Deborah James.

Describing Moscow as “the biggest threat” in the region, James said it is “extremely worrisome on what's going” on in Ukraine.

"I could easily see the day -- though I couldn't tell you the day exactly -- when the F-22, for example, rotates in is a possibility. I don't see why that couldn't happen in the future," she was quoted as saying by Military.com.

Washington relations with Moscow are icy over the conflict in Ukraine. The Kremlin is accused of supporting pro-Russian forces in eastern Ukraine.

The New York Times reported last week the Pentagon is ready to station heavy military equipment in countries on Russia's border to face a possible “Russian aggression.”

Unnamed officials said the weaponry, which includes battle tanks and infantry fighting vehicles, was enough for as many as 5,000 American troops.

On Tuesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin made an announcement following the Pentagon’s decisions for deploying more military equipment in Europe.

Putin announced that his country would add intercontinental ballistic missiles to its nuclear arsenal this year.

“More than 40 new intercontinental ballistic missiles, able to overcome even the most technically advance anti-missile defense systems, will be added to the make-up of the nuclear arsenal this year,” Putin said.

"It does concern me," Kerry said. "Nobody should hear that kind of announcement from a leader of a powerful country and not be concerned about what the implications are."

In an interview with Press TV over the weekend, American political commentator Stephen Lendman warned about Washington’s aggressive policies against Moscow, saying tensions with Russia may spark the flames of another world war.

“This is a willful provocation along with previous ones, along also with repeated belligerent military exercises, provocative events, provocative things going on to literally try to get Russia, to do something stupid to provoke a confrontation that America could blame on Russia,” Lendman said.

“The idea that America should continue theses provocations risk the possibility that we literally could have what I call the unthinkable another global war,” he added.

War Fighting Scenario: 20-Nation NATO Drills In Greece

Via : https://rickrozoff.wordpress.com

Exercise GORDIAN KNOT ’15 (GOKT-15) has reached its “aiming for excellence”, featuring high intensity scenario operations with an intensive battle rhythm, presenting challenges and opportunities to all participants, and supporting Allied and National entities in the area of Thessaloniki in Macedonia region of Northern Greece.

The exercise, running from Tuesday, June the 2nd through Friday the 12th, brought together a total of 1628 military personnel from 20 NATO nations, representing 40 NATO and National Headquarters, for training and further improvement of skills and capabilities, in a clear multinational posture and mindset. The exercise, used as a vehicle to promote and sustain our nations’ common interests and the Alliance’s commitments to the collective defense principles, challenged by a Combat Readiness Evaluation (CREVAL) as it was scheduled with an evaluation team provided by NATO Land Command (LANDCOM) and monitored by SHAPE.

The exercise placed the HQ in a war fighting scenario, forcing the whole team to tackle the kind of issues featured in news headlines around the world. In order to find solutions in a rigorous and complex operational environment new system capabilities and strategies were pushed. The scenario of the exercise deals with the activation of the collective defense under Article 5 of the Alliance.

NRDC-GR Commander’s Lieutenant General Ilias LEONTARIS’ vision as it was pointed out states that our headquarters will remain a key player within the Graduated Readiness Forces (Land) community and will sustain its credibility and reputation within the NATO environment. At the same time NRDC-GREECE will be used a training tool by transferring knowledge and promoting techniques and NATO procedures to the Greek and Allied personnel of the HQs and will be used as a pool of well-trained Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) in the field of NATO Doctrine, Training, Procedures and evaluation domains, available to Armed Forces and NATO Command Structure/NATO Force Structure Headquarters.

He added that he recognizes this event as a high value target and as a milestone for the evolution of this HQ towards Joint Command and Control Capabilities (JC2C) and as a useful tool to secure the commitment of Greece to the Alliance. Starting from the 2nd semester of 2015 and in close coordination and cooperation with the Framework Nation and Troop Contributing Nations (TCNs), NRDC-GREECE will start the evolution process to transform into JHQ in order to be ready to assume the Joint Task Force (JTF) HQ role in the future.

Commander LANDCOM and Chief of the Evaluation Team Lt. General (USA) John NICHOLSON highlighted during his final evaluation report, “I am very confident that NRDC-GR is ready to undertake any command and control of NATO operations.” “An exceptional commander and an excellent staff well-trained and contributing at a higher level, led to an excellent performance that reflects internal and external collaboration,” the General added. In his remarks on the Exercise’s penultimate day, he praised the preparation and cross staff coordination of the participants, saying that they demonstrated professionalism, will, and were “overall excellent.”

Lt. General Ilias LEONTARIS, in his following remarks, highlighted, “I am very satisfied with the results of Ex. GOKT 15, and I am proud of my staff. We could not reach our objectives without the participation of all Troop Contributing Nations, and we promise that we will continue this effort.” He ended stating, “The future belongs to them that work for it and NRDC-GR is working for the future”.

On the Distinguished Visitor’s Day, on the 12th of June 2015, a press conference took place in the Exercise Area, where a NATO Media Operations Center established for the purpose of the exercise. General NICOLSON reconfirmed during his interaction with the media representatives the declaration of “Combat Ready” for NRDC-GR HQ and the strong bond between the two HQs, LANDCOM and NRDC-GR. The GORDIAN KNOT 15 has been a great success. It was an important step for the way ahead of NRDC-GR towards the allied goal of “NATO FORCES FOR THE FUTURE”.