NATO’s Steadfast Noon Nuclear Exercise Gets Underway
On 14 October, NATO’s annual nuclear exercise, Steadfast Noon, began to test and enhance the Alliance’s nuclear deterrence capabilities. The exercise highlights NATO’s commitment to nuclear deterrence to maintain peace and prevent aggression. This year’s drills were particularly notable with the Netherlands’ F-35A aircraft joining the exercise for the first time.
This year’s exercise involves flights mainly over Belgium and the Netherlands and in the airspace over Denmark, the United Kingdom, and the North Sea. Planning for the exercise began a year ago and thirteen Allies will send aircraft to participate in the drills.
Although NATO is a defensive alliance, some of its members (i.e. France, the UK, and the US) do possess nuclear weapons and their carriers. The strength of the NATO nuclear arsenal, however, lies within the US “Nuclear Sharing” Program under which certain countries obtain nuclear weapons although not completely for their disposal.
The annual NATO nuclear exercise is a routine and recurring training event. 2024’s Steadfast Noon involves 2,000 military personnel from eight airbases and a variety of aircraft types, including nuclear-capable jets, bombers, fighter escorts, refueling aircraft and planes capable of reconnaissance and electronic warfare.
The drill has been a great opportunity to test alliance interoperability in the air domain, especially in the simulated environment of the breakout of a nuclear conflict. Since 2022 the capability to deter a threat of conflict with the Russian Federation has become one of the alliance’s most important purposes. Nuclear capabilities help preserve the fragile status quo as they are the last resort asset in preventing an open conflict under the MAD doctrine.
Steadfast Noon is one of many aerial exercises conducted this year by NATO states. Only five months ago one of the largest such exercise in Central Europe took place, although Exercise Astral Knight did not contain the nuclear component, several NATO states operated in simulated conflict environments with elements of cooperation between AEW&C, air refueling, and air domination drills.