NATO tests nuclear response: siren sounds in Ghedi and Aviano

The siren sounds at Ghedi and Aviano airports: the nuclear emergency has begun. Special teams position themselves around armored hangars, deploy tools to prevent incoming drones and protect computers from cyber incursions. It’s just an exercise and the devices are simulacra, but everything happens as if an emergency was faced. “As Secretary General Stoltenberg said, it is important to reinforce the role that the nuclear instrument has in the security of the Alliance in light of what the Russians did in Ukraine. We are more transparent and want to reduce any possibility of misunderstanding. We don’t train in a scenario against Russia, but we train in a realistic way”, declared Jessica Cox, head of NATO’s atomic policy, from Brussels, in an interview with Repubblica, New York Times and Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

The war in Ukraine, which destabilized the world balance, materialized the most terrifying scenario: the hypothesis of the launch of a nuclear bomb in Europe became, in fact, an increasingly topic of debate. “We are adapting NATO’s thinking to the evolution of the strategic scenario, it is a constant process that began in 2014, when Moscow’s nuclear threats and capabilities began to grow”, explained Cox. For the first time since 1992 there is a proliferation of warheads in Europe: Russian tactical bombs have been installed in Belarus, just a few kilometers from NATO’s Baltic borders: “We are monitoring all activities on the ground in Belarus and are concerned about the growing relations with Moscow. We have updated our plans as a precaution,” he added the head of NATO’s atomic policy. The skies over northern Italy, Sardinia and Croatia will also be involved in the tests. The North American airport of Aviano (Pordenone) and the Air Force airport of Ghedi (Brescia) are the two pillars of the tactical nuclear deterrence on the Southern Front.