SACHA PFEIFFER, HOST:
Charles just told us about Russia's tensions with the U.S. Now we look at Russia's tensions with NATO amid the Ukraine war and Russian drone hits across Europe. This week, Russia tested its nuclear readiness, and a top Kremlin official warned of a potential, quote, "head-on clash between nuclear powers." That came after NATO tried a surprising new tactic to try to prevent nuclear attacks. It publicized a practice run of its own nuclear exercises. Reporter Teri Schultz watched one of these NATO drills in the Netherlands and sent us this report from Volkel Air Base.
TERI SCHULTZ: Takeoffs like this one used to be top secret.
(SOUNDBITE OF ENGINE ROARING)
SCHULTZ: This year, for the first time ever, journalists got a front-row seat.
UNIDENTIFIED AIR BASE OFFICIAL: You have a nice long view of the takeoffs of the F-35 and the Tornadoes.
SCHULTZ: Oh, cool.
UNIDENTIFIED AIR BASE OFFICIAL: So that's good.
SCHULTZ: F-35...
Good and groundbreaking - for years, the very existence of this nuclear exercise and even its name - Steadfast Noon - was so highly classified that NATO officials, including the alliance's former director of arms control, William Alberque, were not allowed to speak the words.
WILLIAM ALBERQUE: I mean, I would have been in jail if, in 2016, I had said the words Steadfast Noon in public.
SCHULTZ: Those rules were finally loosened just four years ago when Steadfast Noon was made public, but Alberque was still shocked to learn journalists were invited this year to witness NATO fighter jets practicing the hypothetical deployment of U.S. nuclear weapons at one of the six European military bases where they've been stored since the 1950s, NATO's ultimate deterrent. This one is near the North Sea.
ALBERQUE: This is truly unprecedented, to take journalists on site to watch a nuclear strike evaluation exercise. Really, this has been a pivot because of Putin's reckless war on Ukraine towards allies renewing their need to talk to their publics and to increase their knowledge, which then increases their confidence, which allows them to make the case better.
SCHULTZ: Now with the Pacific Forum research institute, Alberque makes it his mission to help people understand nuclear policy. But while he, as a former alliance official, can draw the conclusion that Russia's saber rattling has prompted NATO's turnabout on transparency, current officials aren't yet quite that open. Out on the rainy tarmac, U.S. Air Force Colonel Daniel Bunch, the head of NATO's nuclear operations, avoids any identification of a specific adversary in the drills that involve some 2,000 personnel and 70 aircraft from 14 NATO members.
DANIEL BUNCH: We need to be able to talk to our populations about the capabilities of the real-world threats in this world.
SCHULTZ: But why did you not have to talk about them five years ago, and now you do?
BUNCH: The world has changed. We see different threats, and NATO has made a commitment to be transparent in our democratic systems, and this is part of demonstrating our capabilities and making sure that everyone is aware of what we can perform.
SCHULTZ: One of the Dutch pilots participating in the exercise, identified only by his first initial B, even on his uniform, in accordance with military protocol, said the light now being shown on the exercise doesn't take away from the weight of his responsibility.
B: The burden we have -obviously, it's not a normal weapon. It's the highest form of violence we have within NATO to deter our allies, to keep NATO safe, but also keep the families of the NATO members safe.
SCHULTZ: William Alberque says, the publicity will help pilot B and his counterparts convince the Kremlin that NATO's capabilities are daunting enough that they should never consider nuclear conflict. He says he's encouraged that this is one of the results of what NATO said would be an updated nuclear policy.
ALBERQUE: That really means, in addition to the technical stuff, that there's a huge public affairs element to this, too, that they've decided to have more courage to be more public. There are folks in the Russian foreign ministry and ministry of defense and Putin's administration who are going to look at journalists on site during a NATO nuclear exercise and go, oh, that's different. I didn't have that on my bingo card for 2025.
SCHULTZ: He's right that Russian officials were watching. Even as Moscow rolled out its own nuclear exercise just days ago, Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova called the joint drills of Steadfast Noon deeply destabilizing. For NPR News, I'm Teri Schultz at Volkel Air Base in the Netherlands. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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