The North Atlantic Treaty Organization or NATO launched the Arctic Challenge Exercise based in the north of Norway, Sweden and Finland. The exercise involves 115 fighter planes and 3600 troops from nine countries. Eurofighter Typhoons, Tornado GR4 fighters, Lockheed Martin F-16s are just some of the aircraft that will take part in the exercise. United States, United Kingdom, Switzerland, Netherlands, Germany and France are some of the participants of the exercise.

This exercise is the second of its kind, first similar tests was conducted in 2013. The exercise is to last for 12 days. This Russian military exercise has coincided with an Arctic training exercise by NATO and has raised debate.

Russia has recently launched a massive military exercise involving 12000 soldiers and around 250 aircraft, including long-range bombers carrying cruise missiles.

Tidbits

• NATO is an intergovernmental military alliance based on the North Atlantic Treaty, which was signed on 4 April 1949.
• NATO’s headquarters are in Brussels and Belgium.
• The current Secretary General of NATO is Jens Stoltenberg.
• The number of member countries in NATO are 28.