BRUSSELS, October 9. /TASS/. Starting October 13, NATO will begin its annual nuclear deterrence exercise, Steadfast Noon, in Italy, which will not involve live ammunition, the alliance’s press service reported.
It said that 17 countries will participate in the exercise. "No live weapons are used in Steadfast Noon. The exercise is not linked to current world events and is not directed against any country," the statement says.
Three NATO members - the United States, France and the United Kingdom - are nuclear weapons states. NATO’s nuclear sharing arrangements ensure that the benefits, responsibilities and risks of nuclear deterrence are shared across the Alliance. So, warheads from the countries possessing nuclear weapons can be deployed on delivery systems belonging to non-nuclear weapon states to make them more difficult to detect. This explains the number of participants in the nuclear exercises.