U.S. plays smaller role in NATO exercise designed to counter evolving Russian threats

Aboard a NATO warship off the coast of Italy, U.S. allies are conducting a military exercise, simulating what might occur in the event of a possible conflict with Russia.  

A CBS News crew on Thursday was flown out by helicopter with the Italian military to HMS Prince of Wales, a British aircraft carrier deployed in the Mediterranean Sea, where there are 26 American-made F-35 fighter jets.

The military exercise, Neptune Strike, brings the U.S. together with nine of its allies — including the United Kingdom, Greece, Poland and Turkey — practicing long-range strikes on NATO's eastern flank, hitting training grounds close to Russia.

The focus of the exercise is to defend critical waterways like the Mediterranean, which connects Europe with Africa and the Middle East, and carries about 30% of the world's oil traffic, according to the United Nations.

The exercise comes as Russia tests the U.S.-led alliance with frequent incursions into NATO airspace using drones and fighter jets.

"I see those activities as intended to stress the alliance," Gen. Alexus Grynkewich, head of U.S. European Command and NATO Supreme Allied commander Europe, told CBS News.

Grynkewich, a four-star general in charge of about 80,000 U.S. troops, has said that NATO needs to be prepared to fight concurrent conflicts with Russia and China by 2027.

"Of course, we don't hope for that outcome, but you want to be ready for any contingency," Grynkewich told CBS News, adding that war with one or both of the two superpowers is "absolutely not" inevitable.

"Our main goal is to deter that conflict from ever happening," Grynkewich said.

While the U.S. has taken part in previous iterations of the military exercise, this year's U.S. footprint was smaller as allied nations are pressed by the Trump administration to put more into European defense. Going back to his first term, Mr. Trump has repeatedly pushed for NATO members to boost their defense spending to at least 5% of their respective GDPs.