PRESS

announced that it intended to procure Chinese-made
air-defense systems. 14 The United States and other
NATO countries made their displeasure with that decision
clear, and Congress took the unusual step of actually
writing into the defense authorization bill a provision
denying the use of any American government
funds to help “integrate the Chinese missile defense
systems into U.S. or NATO systems.” 15 Ankara has
since postponed its decision to procure the Chinese
systems to consider purchasing alternative systems. 16
READINESS
Regular NATO exercises are intended to hone
NATO airmen’s skills at both the operator and command-and-control
levels. Likewise, individual NATO
nations often host or participate in bilateral and multilateral
exercises. For example, three to four times a
year, Spain hosts the Tactical Leadership Program to
train aircrews in large mission employment, and Portugal
hosts the multilateral Real Thaw exercise every
year. NATO nations also participate in air exercises
outside of Europe. Israel’s most recent Blue Flag exercise
included aircraft and airmen from the United
States, Italy, and Greece.
NATO’s Allied Air Command recently conducted
its largest exercise to date, Ramstein Ambition II
2014—a computer-assisted, command-post exercise
simulating continuous operations—in which 400 airmen
from 26 nations participated. According to General
Gorenc, Ramstein Ambition II 2014 is a great
validation point on the march toward AIRCOM’s full
operational capability. 17
However, it is important to note that each nation
funds its own participation in most exercises. If
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