What’s happening?
Effectively, Nato is putting up road blocks in the sky. Large swathes of airspace above Germany and neighbouring countries will be closed to civil aircraft during the multi-national exercise – which runs from Monday 12 to Thursday 22 June inclusive (though with the weekend of Saturday 17 and Sunday 18 June off).
Civilian pilots must navigate around three main “clusters” where flying is restricted or forbidden at various altitudes. Each will be closed or heavily restricted for civilian traffic for several hours each day.
North, extending into the skies above Denmark and the Netherlands.
East, close to the Polish and Czech borders.
South (running from Luxembourg along the French frontier, almost as far as Lake Constance
Why is Nato taking over central Europe just when millions are trying to fly to the sunshine?
The stated aim of the exercise is “on optimising and expanding cooperation among participating nations”, with manouvres modelled on a “Nato Article 5 assistance scenario”.
Article 5 means: ”If a Nato ally is the victim of an armed attack, each and every other member of the alliance will consider this act of violence as an armed attack against all members and will take the actions it deems necessary to assist the ally attacked.
https://uk.news.yahoo.com/air-defender-23-nato-exercise-153340940.html