19
DEZ
2023
The Federal Republic, as the Bundeswehr informs on its website, is "at the center" of the large-scale maneuver Quadriga 2024 carried out by NATO. The name of the war exercise refers, it is further said, to the chariot, the quadriga, on the Brandenburg Gate, which is a symbol of Germany's "freedom, unity and strength". According to the Bundeswehr, a total of 12,000 soldiers will train the "relocation of national and multinational land forces"; this should be "especially visible to all citizens in the German public". How many of the 12,000 military personnel will be German soldiers is not yet publicly known. 1] In addition to the German Army, the Bundeswehr will also participate in the maneuver with all other sub-arms. The Bundeswehr announces the official start of the exercise for next February. The military activities are to continue until May 2024. 2]
With the unusually long duration of Quadriga 2024, the Bundeswehr wants to train the "use and leadership of troops over a longer period of time." 3] In this way, the German military hope to improve their "ability to quickly transfer their own forces to the NATO eastern flank in Norway, Lithuania, Romania or Hungary" - from the "alarm" [4] to the "demarch" [5] "to the multinational battle" [6] on a future eastern front. The German army, for example, wants to train the securing of "march paths" - also for the "transfer of partner forces" and their weapons by the Federal Republic. 7] With Quadriga 2024, Germany underlines its claim to be a "huge turntable" for the "troop marches" of the NATO bloc on its eastern flank. In this way, the Federal Republic is demonstrating its "performance" as a NATO partner and taking "leadership responsibility," it is said. 8] From the function as a hub and logistical control center for the transatlantic troop movements towards Ukraine and Russia, Berlin hopes for an increase in importance within NATO.
Quadriga 2024 is not the only maneuver that NATO will hold next spring. It is intertwined into a so-called exercise cluster - a network of interlocking maneuvers that extends over five months and spatially from Norway to Romania along the entire Russian western border. Quadriga itself is composed of four partial exercises. From the middle to the end of February, the 1st Panzer Division of the Bundeswehr in the Grand Center called first part of the war exercise in Germany, Poland and Lithuania. In the 1st Panzer Division had only incorporated the last Dutch army brigade in March of this year, Berlin and The Hague. 9] From mid-February to mid-March, the Division Fast Forces and the Mountain Hunter Brigade 23 train warfare under extreme weather conditions in the Grand North sub-exercise in Norway. 10] From the end of April to the end of May, German paratroopers of the Fast Forces Division will rehearse "the rapid relocation and deployment" in Hungary and Romania. According to the Bundeswehr, the "height of Quadriga 2024 is the partial exercise Grand Quadriga in May. The 10th trains. Armored division "the relocation and closed mechanized use with combat and infantry tanks" in Lithuania. 11]
The partial exercises of Quadriga 2024 in turn lead to maneuvers of other NATO countries. From Grand Center, German soldiers will move on to participate in the Polish maneuver Dragon and the US exercise Saber Strike [12]. Grand North will transition into the maneuver Nordic Response, Grand South into Swift Response. With this cluster, NATO simulates a "battlefield network" [13] along the Russian western border. The simultaneity of the different maneuvers and the staggering of the troops deployed are an "enormous challenge," explains the Bundeswehr. The nesting of the troop movements in partially seamlessly interlocking or overlapping individual maneuvers makes it difficult to make a realistic assessment of the actual extent of the march.
Quadriga 2024 is the German contribution to the NATO large-scale maneuver Steadfast Defender. The USA will move troops to Europe and then, together with all NATO members on the eastern flank, rehearse the "use of land forces" in a war against Russia. 14] More than 41,000 NATO soldiers train a arm against "an enemy that is modelled on a coalition led by Russia," reports the Financial Times. According to its own information, NATO is using real geographical data from Eastern Europe for the first time to offer its troops "a more realistic scenario" of the potential future area of operation. NATO employees told the US press that the war alliance wanted to show Moscow that it was "ready" to "fight" with the maneuver. 15]
[1] Army and NATO partners start a large maneuver in 2024. bundeswehr.de 30.11.2023.
[2] Outlook on "Quadriga" - biggest maneuver since the Cold War. reservistenverband.de 07.09.2023.
[3], [4] Army and NATO partners start a large maneuver in 2024. bundeswehr.de 30.11.2023.
[5] Outlook on "Quadriga" - biggest maneuver since the Cold War. reservistenverband.de 07.09.2023.
[6] Army and NATO partners start a major maneuver in 2024. bundeswehr.de 30.11.2023.
[7] View of "Quadriga" - biggest maneuver since the Cold War. reservistenverband.de 07.09.2023.
[8] Army and NATO partners start a major maneuver in 2024. bundeswehr.de 30.11.2023.
[9] S. about it New power, new troops.
[10] Flyer Quadriga 2024. bundeswehr.de.
[11] Army and NATO partners start a major maneuver in 2024. bundeswehr.de 30.11.2023.
[12] Flyer Quadriga 2024. bundeswehr.de.
[13] P. on the war exercise despite the pandemic.
[14] Army and NATO partners start a major maneuver in 2024. bundeswehr.de 30.11.2023.
[15] Nato to launch biggest military exercise since cold war. Financial Times 11.09.2023.