NATO launched an interactive website to highlight its members, global missions, and international partnerships. “The purpose of the map is to illustrate to the general public the wide range of NATO’s work, both in terms of geography and in terms of the activities we carry out,” says Pino Nobile of NATO headquarters in Brussels. “Relatively few people understand how complex, widespread, and active NATO is across many different fields. The map is intended to show them in a simple and graphic way what NATO does, and why we do it,” he said. The map displays where NATO assets are deployed, such as the ISAF mission in Afghanistan; air policing in the Baltic states, Albania, and Slovenia; and protecting Turkish airspace with Patriot missile batteries. Visitors can also click a part of the map to read information on alliance capabilities like cyber defense. The map comes at a time when NATO is more deliberately signaling its stepped-up military cooperation in the aftermath of Russia’s annexation of the Crimea.
The Air Force has finished modifying and testing the new VC-25B Bridge aircraft that will serve as a temporary Air Force One, the service announced May 1. All that’s left now is to finish painting the jet before it starts flying this summer.