NATO military officials were caught off guard by surprise guests as military exercises began in the Baltics last week — Russians.
As U.S.-led exercises with Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia were under way, the Russian military began conducting its own training maneuvers. The Russian exercises included marines, paratroopers, and long-range bombers. Russia Today posted a video of the exercises on YouTube Wednesday.
The NATO exercises, which included B-2 Spirit stealth bombers, were then operating in a crowded region rife with Russian Su-34 Fullback attack planes, A-50 AWACS aircraft, the short-range surface-to-air missile system SA-9-N Tor, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and other military hardware, the defense website The Aviationist reported Wednesday.
The B-2 stealth bombers the U.S. deployed to Europe will be used for “short term deployment” at Fairford, a Royal Air Force base in England — just three hours from Russia.
• Douglas Ernst can be reached at dernst@washingtontimes.com.
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