<p>France is planning its biggest ever military exercise involving 12,000 troops, including <a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/tag/nato" target="_blank">NATO </a>allies, in the first half of next year, a commander at the chiefs of staff said Tuesday.</p>.<p>The scenario calls for a major conflict with an unspecified foreign state to be played out, said Yves Metayer, commander of the troop deployment division at the French chiefs of staff.</p>.<p>The exercise will come against the background of <a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/tag/russia-ukraine-crisis" target="_blank">Russia's war in Ukraine</a> launched in February this year.</p>.<p>"The geopolitical context justifies this exercise," Metayer said, adding however that the war games plan had been in the works since 2020 and followed on from a French strategic review published in 2017.</p>.<p>The review pointed to "a need to prepare for a major conflict", after two decades of mostly asymmetrical warfare with non-state actors, such as jihadists, he said.</p>.<p>"After the fall of the Berlin Wall, we allowed the mobilisation mechanisms we had during the Cold War to decline," he added.</p>.<p>The wargames, called Orion will involve European NATO allies Germany, Britain, Belgium, Italy and Spain as well as the United States.</p>.<p>Between late February and early May, 7,000 troops will play out a sequence involving naval operations in the Mediterranean, and an amphibian and airlift operation in southern France.</p>.<p>This phase will simulate an intervention in a country undermined by militia activity, and neighbour to a powerful nuclear state stirring up the unrest.</p>.<p>From mid-April to early May, the soldiers will simulate air and land conflict with that powerful state, involving the deployment of up to 12,000 troops in northern France.</p>.<p>Orion will involve land, sea, air and space components, including cyber warfare, as well as civilian operations in wartime, such as health services and transport, Metayer.</p>
<p>France is planning its biggest ever military exercise involving 12,000 troops, including <a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/tag/nato" target="_blank">NATO </a>allies, in the first half of next year, a commander at the chiefs of staff said Tuesday.</p>.<p>The scenario calls for a major conflict with an unspecified foreign state to be played out, said Yves Metayer, commander of the troop deployment division at the French chiefs of staff.</p>.<p>The exercise will come against the background of <a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/tag/russia-ukraine-crisis" target="_blank">Russia's war in Ukraine</a> launched in February this year.</p>.<p>"The geopolitical context justifies this exercise," Metayer said, adding however that the war games plan had been in the works since 2020 and followed on from a French strategic review published in 2017.</p>.<p>The review pointed to "a need to prepare for a major conflict", after two decades of mostly asymmetrical warfare with non-state actors, such as jihadists, he said.</p>.<p>"After the fall of the Berlin Wall, we allowed the mobilisation mechanisms we had during the Cold War to decline," he added.</p>.<p>The wargames, called Orion will involve European NATO allies Germany, Britain, Belgium, Italy and Spain as well as the United States.</p>.<p>Between late February and early May, 7,000 troops will play out a sequence involving naval operations in the Mediterranean, and an amphibian and airlift operation in southern France.</p>.<p>This phase will simulate an intervention in a country undermined by militia activity, and neighbour to a powerful nuclear state stirring up the unrest.</p>.<p>From mid-April to early May, the soldiers will simulate air and land conflict with that powerful state, involving the deployment of up to 12,000 troops in northern France.</p>.<p>Orion will involve land, sea, air and space components, including cyber warfare, as well as civilian operations in wartime, such as health services and transport, Metayer.</p>