The North Atlantic Treaty Organization, also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance of 32 member states—30 European and 2 North American. Established in the aftermath of World War II, the organization implements the North Atlantic Treaty, signed in Washington, D.C., on 4 April 1949. NATO is a collective security system: its independent member states agree to defend each other against attacks by third parties. During the Cold War, NATO operated as a check on the threat posed by the Soviet Union. The alliance remained in place after the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact, and has been involved in military operations in the Balkans, the Middle East, South Asia and Africa. The organization's motto is animus in consulendo liber. The organization's strategic concepts include deterrence.
The Bundeswehr is the armed forces of the Federal Republic of Germany. The Bundeswehr is divided into a military part and a civil part, the military part consisting of the German Army, the German Navy, the German Air Force, the Joint Support Service, the Joint Medical Service, and the Cyber and Information Domain Service.
The German Army is the land component of the armed forces of Germany. The present-day German Army was founded in 1955 as part of the newly formed West German Bundeswehr together with the Marine and the Luftwaffe. As of January 2022, the German Army had a strength of 62,766 soldiers.
Exercise Campaign Reforger was an annual military exercise and campaign conducted by NATO during the Cold War. The exercise was intended to ensure that NATO had the ability to quickly deploy forces to West Germany in the event of a conflict with the Warsaw Pact. Although most troops deployed were from the United States, the operation also involved a substantial number of troops from other NATO countries including Canada and the United Kingdom. It was a basic military planning exercise to smooth out issues in the event of an invasion of western Europe, and not a show of force. Once the Cold War ended, it was superseded by other exercises.
The Allied Command Europe Mobile Force (AMF) was a small NATO quick reaction force, headquartered at Heidelberg, Germany, active from 1960 to 2002. It formed part of Allied Command Europe (ACE), headquartered at SHAPE at Casteau, Belgium. The land component of the force, consisting of a brigade-sized formation of about 5,000 personnel, was composed of units from 14 NATO states.
Operation Althea, formally the European Union Force Bosnia and Herzegovina (EUFOR), is a military deployment in Bosnia and Herzegovina to oversee the military implementation of the Dayton Agreement. It is the successor to NATO's SFOR and IFOR. The transition from SFOR to EUFOR was largely a change of name and commanders: 80% of the troops remained in place. It replaced SFOR on 2 December 2004.
Nordic Response is a military exercise hosted by Norway with other NATO and invited Partnership for Peace countries held every other year.
The 1st Panzer Division(German: "1. Panzerdivision", short: "1. PzDiv") is an armoured division of the German Army. Its headquarter is based in Oldenburg. In the course of the last reorganisation of the Bundeswehr it became the backbone of Germany's newly formed intervention forces with a manpower of 35,000 soldiers. The division is equipped and trained for high intensity combat operations against militarily organized enemies as well as peacekeeping missions. The majority of all German troops assigned to EU-Battlegroups and Nato Response Forces will come from this division. It also represents Germany's permanent contribution to the binational I. German/Dutch Corps.
With a contingent of 4,350 soldiers and policemen, Germany was one of the main contributors of troops to coalition operations in Afghanistan. Although German troops mainly operated in the comparatively quiet north of the country, the Bundeswehr suffered a number of casualties during participation in the International Security Assistance Force mission in Afghanistan.
The 10th Panzer Division is an armoured division of the German Army, part of the Bundeswehr. Its staff is based at Veitshöchheim. The division is a unit of the German Army's stabilization forces and specializes in conflicts of low intensity.
Friedrich Albert Foertsch was a German general serving during World War II and from 1961 to 1963 the second Inspector General of the Bundeswehr.
Harald Kujat is a German retired General of the Luftwaffe. He served as Chief of Staff of the German armed forces, the Bundeswehr, from 2000 to 2002, and as Chairman of the NATO Military Committee from 2002 to 2005.
Lechfeld Air Base is a German Air Force (Luftwaffe) base located 1 km east of Lagerlechfeld in Bavaria, about 20 km south of Augsburg on the Bundestrasse 17.
Neuburg Air Base is a military air base in Germany. It is located in the district of Neuburg-Schrobenhausen on the Danube River, approximately 20 km west-southwest of Ingolstadt. Its primary user is Jagdgeschwader 74 of the German Air Force (Luftwaffe), which provides air defence for Southern Germany. Since 2006 Eurofighter Typhoons have been operated from the base. Although Neuburg is the smallest fighter aircraft base in the Bundeswehr, the air base was virtually unaffected by the Bundeswehr reform announced in 2011.
The Multinational CIMIC Command, is the fourth generation of Civil-military co-operation of the Bundeswehr. The first predecessor was already formed in 2001 out of parts of the German Army (Heer), the German Air Force (Luftwaffe) and the German Navy (Deutsche Marine) as part of the Joint Support Service (Streitkräftebasis) at the Clausewitz-Barracks in Nienburg, Lower Saxony. In 2017 it employs around 200 soldiers and Civil Servants Additional to this the centre receives support by the local state commands (Landeskommando) of the States of Germany (Bundesländer) and the academy of the Federal Office for Civil Protection and Disaster Assistance in Bad Neuenahr.
Christopher Gerard Cavoli is a general in the United States Army who serves as the commander of United States European Command since 1 July 2022 and Supreme Allied Commander Europe since 4 July 2022. He previously served as the commanding general of United States Army Europe and Africa from October 2020 to June 2022, and before that as the commanding general of United States Army Europe from January 2018 to September 2020.
Defender-Europe 21 was a large-scale, United States Army-led, multinational joint exercise designed to build readiness and interoperability between the United States, NATO and partner militaries. Taking place between mid-March and June, it was one of the largest United States Army, NATO-led military exercises in Europe in decades. More than 28,000 personnel from 26 nations conducted nearly simultaneous operations across more than 30 training areas in a dozen countries.
Air Defender 23 is the name of a major maneuver of armed forces of member states of NATO and other European countries in European airspace in 2023. It lasted 10 days, from 12 June to 23 June 2023. Although Air Defender 23 was not an exercise of NATO, but initiated by the Bundeswehr, it was the largest exercise of air forces announced since NATO was founded. The maneuver took place in the airspace of the Federal Republic of Germany, under the leadership of the German Air Force. It involved up to 10,000 soldiers and 250 aircraft from 25 countries.
Steadfast Defender is the name of a series of NATO exercises. The latest exercise, being held in 2024, is the largest since the Cold War. The first one was held in 2021, and they are planned to be held every three years.
