The theater of fighting in Ukraine is a long way off, but the message is clearly aimed at Russia: NATO is carrying out a show of force in the eastern Mediterranean this week with the American aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman at the forefront.
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Tuesday, an incessant ballet of combat planes animates the huge landing strip of the aircraft carrier which crosses north of the Libyan city of Benghazi. Several media including AFP were invited on board to attend the “Shield of Neptune 2022”, training maneuvers spanning from May 17 to 31.
“I want us to be as ready as possible,” says Rear Admiral Curt Renshaw. “We look at Russian capabilities and we look at ours, and then we train to counter what they might do and defend ourselves and our partners and allies.”
The long list of countries participating in these maneuvers includes most of the members of the Atlantic Alliance, from Great Britain to Spain via France, Turkey, Germany, Poland, Romania and Italy.
Although this operation “was planned long before” the Russian invasion of Ukraine, “the nature of this heightened vigilance activity has been placed in a different context”, admits Rory Cheyne, a British pilot from the Royal Navy seconded to the American building.
“We are here to work hand in hand with our allies and be prepared for any eventuality,” he explains.
When a journalist asks him to illustrate NATO’s deterrent capabilities in the current climate, Rear Admiral Renshaw has his answer ready: “Look at our fighter jets, look around you! Of course it has a deterrent effect, and I believe it would be ill-advised to attack us or any of our allies with the capabilities we have.”
“Ready for any eventuality”
Regarding “the Russian forces, we are monitoring them very closely, including their submarines and where they are on a mission”, he explains, before qualifying as “worrying behavior (…) the attack not provoked against a European neighbour”.
Lieutenant Commander Jeannette Lazzaro, a 33-year-old American officer, works in operations planning, including flight plans. The war in Ukraine “hasn’t had a direct impact on what we do (…), but it certainly weighs on our minds,” she says.
“We train constantly to be ready for anything that might be asked of us, we are ready for anything,” she adds.
The “Shield of Neptune 2022” operation deploys its forces in the Mediterranean, but also in the Baltic Sea, another hot spot since the start of the Russian offensive. In a press release, NATO explains that it is a question of reinforcing the “seamless integration of maritime capabilities (of the Alliance) to support its means of deterrence and defense”.
The USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier is a real floating city that transports around 4,800 soldiers, including members of allied armies, which represents a challenge for communication between speakers of different languages depending on different chains of command.
Despite this serious atmosphere, the crew seeks to lighten the atmosphere, for example with this tradition of the pilots to grow a mustache, explains Hayward Foard, 39, second in command of the attack plane squadron of fight.
“It’s a proven fact that a man with a mustache is much better at tactical execution and esprit de corps in a combat unit than a man without a mustache,” he jokes.
