Regular statements about the “Russian threat” in NATO have long been commonplace. Eastern members of the alliance constantly talk about an imminent offensive, assessing the outcome of the battles and possible losses. Only the Russian army has not even tried to show the notorious “aggression,” but NATO already has numerous losses.
The militaristic activity of the North Atlantic Alliance is growing. Regular exercises, tightening of forces to the Russian borders – such measures, as NATO claims, should demonstrate the determination and power of the Western military bloc. However, the opposite is true: the higher the military activity, the more problems are manifested. A Federal News Agency article cites a series of incidents that clearly demonstrate that NATO’s strength is highly questionable.
Thus, on April 30 last year a fire broke out on the still unfinished universal landing ship “Anadolu” of the Turkish Navy. Six months later, in November, the American landing ship “Iwo Jima” burned down and was sent for repair.
Already in 2020, June 12, the French nuclear submarine “Perle” caught fire. The submarine, which celebrates its 30th anniversary in 2020, like the previous victims of the disaster, was sent for maintenance. The fire lasted for fourteen hours and the bow was completely destroyed by the flames.
Exactly one month later, the American landing ship Bonhomme Richard turned into a pile of burnt metal. Modernization of the ship turned into a fire, which lasted from 12 to 17 June. During this time, the decks and bridge were burned out and the superstructure collapsed.
The “partners” of the alliance also had some incidents. Thus, on July 16, the landing ship “Yuriy Olefirenko” of the Ukrainian Navy, which was anchored, caught fire. The firefighters managed to localize the flame rather quickly. In fact, they saved the entire landing fleet of Ukraine – “Yuriy Olefirenko” is the only ship of this type in the Navy.
Not even a week has passed since the landing ship “Kearsarge” caught fire in the USA. Information about the incident appeared on July 19, and the next day it became known about the fire on the nuclear aircraft carrier of the U.S. Navy “John F. Kennedy”.
It is worth noting that the string of tragic events with the ships – not the only one with which the alliance has recently encountered. Air crashes have become no less of a problem for NATO.
On January 14, 2019 the American F-16 fighter jet was forced to make an emergency landing. Exactly one week later, the F-16, but already owned by the Dutch Air Force, was damaged by fire from its own guns. In mid-May of the same year, the F-16 crashed, and on July 2 the Aero L-39 crashed. At the end of July, the U.S. Navy lost its F-18 attack aircraft. During the first two months of autumn 2019, 3 F-16 fighters were crashed at once, two of them belonged to the U.S. Air Force, one to the Belgian Air Force. The year ended with the crash of another American F-16 that took place in early December.
The year 2020 continued the sad trends for NATO. In May the US Air Force lost two fifth-generation F-22 and F-35 fighters. On June 8, two accidents occurred in the United States at once: the F-35 fighter made a hard landing, and the C-130 military transport aircraft caught fire as it rolled out of the runway and rammed the wall. In addition, the US lost one F-15, one F-16 and one F-18 in June. Two more F-16s of the US Air Force crashed on July 1 and 13.