THE HAGUE, October 14. /TASS/. NATO is using the Steadfast Noon exercise as a smokescreen to conceal the alliance's shortfall of conventional weapons, Kees van der Pijl, a Dutch political analyst and former professor at the University of Sussex, told TASS in an interview.

"NATO’s idea is of course to flex their muscles, but the real message behind these drills is that the alliance hardly has any conventional arms left at its disposal," the political scientist believes. According to him, this show of force is designed to hide the West’s growing difficulties in defense production and logistics. "The alliance is trying to make up for the weakening of its real capabilities with threats meant to cause a psychological effect," van der Pijl explained.

On Monday, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte announced that the alliance’s Steadfast Noon nuclear deterrence exercise had kicked off. He described the exercise as "a long planned, routine training activity" unrelated to any current world events and using "no live weapons."