The United States Air Force has sent aircraft and personnel in support of the US European Command’s Astral Knight 24 (AK24) to forward operating bases in Lithuania, Poland, and Romania. May 6 to May 21 is heating up as a major event to highlight the commitment of the U.S. European Command to integrated air and missile defense (IAMD) throughout the European theater.
In this light, Astral Knight 24 is an important exercise that develops the maneuverability and integration of U.S. allies and partners. Based on what the deputy commander of United States Air Forces in Europe and Air Forces Africa, Lt. Gen. Johnny Lamontagne, had expressed, such exercise is the bedrock of the AAC strategy across Europe and Africa. Logically, AK24 will continue to refine ally and partner interoperability to validate integrated air and missile defense capability.
More than 50 U.S. aircraft are involved in the exercise, including F-35 Lightning IIs, F-16 Fighting Falcons, HH-60G Pave Hawk helicopters, KC-135 Stratotankers, MQ-9 Reaper drones, and RQ-4 Global Hawk drones operating from Poland, Lithuania and Romania. The airspace and airports of the six NATO countries of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, the United Kingdom, and the United States are taking an active part. Denmark and Greece have sent personnel to observe the exercise.
The exercise consists of live-fly and simulated combat operations that train in the deployment and sustainment of the IAMD assets and capabilities. It aims to exercise plans on the defensive for the employment of ACE in distributed air operations. This is important in countering evolving ballistic and cruise missiles, as well as drone threats highlighted by recent conflicts in both Ukraine and Israel.
“This last part, because of recent events, is key, because, believe it or not, most real-world threats that we face are probably going to go after main operating bases,” said James Shaw, the deputy division chief for Integrated Air and Missile Defense and Air Base Air Defense within USAFE-AFAFRICA.
The exercise demonstrates the USAFE-AFAFRICA’s ability to move the assets and the personnel under its operational control to the NATO Allied Air Command. Available text: “According to Gen. James B. Hecker, who is in charge of NATO Allied Air Command and U.S. Air Forces in Europe-Air Forces Africa, Astral Knight demonstrates the collective defense capabilities of the alliance and partners across Europe and an early realization of the potential for collaboration and integration across air and missile defense creates a better deterrence and response capability to shared threats.”.
AK24 is one of the activities in the Large Scale Global Exercise 2024, in which the Department of Defense is implementing. In line with numerous other joint and multinational military activities, it visualizes the strong and real global presence of the U.S. and the coherence of its global endurance together with its allies and partners in a joint partnership towards security and stability.
The workout is also in support of the NATO independent Steadfast Defender exercise, one of whose elements is dubbed Swift Response and the first for Sweden as part of the NATO exercise after joining the alliance in March as a country. U.S. European Command deputy commander, Lieutenant General Steven Basham, noted the exercise’s importance and echoed that the successful campaigning and the exercising call for paying the necessary attention to presence and level of integration with the partners, which will continue to play the deterrence.
Astral Knight 24 is a demonstration of committed work in the improvement of the IAMD capabilities of NATO, hence ensuring that common threats are addressed adequately and the European theater remains stable.