"Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg announced yesterday an exercise, a strategic exercise that NATO is going to be conducting later on here this fall," Kirby said. "It's called Steadfast Noon and the United States is going to be proud to participate in that. It is an annual strategic nuclear exercise.
Kirby explained that the exercise is normally conducted in the fall and has been planned "well, well in advance."
"In fact, in this particular case... it was planned, even in advance of the February 24 invasion of Ukraine by Russia. So this exercise is not linked to any real world events or to what Russia is doing," he said.
Kirby noted that the exercise will involve fighter jets without using live munitions and the United States plans to utilize numerous capabilities, including B52 bombers.
"Some 14 NATO nations are going to be involved in this exercise. And it'll be held well away from Russia, some more than 600 miles away," Kirby said. "I would also note that, quite frankly, we expect Russia to conduct its annual strategic nuclear exercise they call it ‘Grom’ as early as this month, which will be large scale maneuvers of strategic nuclear forces on the Russian side. I would like to emphasize that this exercise too occurs every year. And we anticipate the exercise will span several days. It'll include actions within the normal bounds of what Russia has done in the past to include live missile launches, and the deployment of strategic assets."
While Russia probably believes this exercise will help it project power, particularly in light of recent events, the United States knows that Russian nuclear units train routinely and extensively at this time of year and Washington will continue to monitor them accordingly, Kirby added.