German Air Force Chief Warns NATO Is Ready to Fight Russia Immediately

German Air Force commander Lt. Gen. Holger Neumann issued an unusually blunt warning to Russia in an interview published Sunday night in The Telegraph. He said Germany’s air force is ready to fight “tonight” if Moscow attacks NATO territory, and that Berlin and the alliance must be prepared to respond at once.

“If someone called now and said there is a situation, we have to be ready, and we are ready,” Neumann said. “We will go into battle with everything Germany has, and with all the power of NATO, to defend our country, our values and the NATO alliance.” He said NATO has no different levels of protection, and that an attack on any centimeter of alliance territory would be treated as an attack on all members.

Neumann named Kaliningrad, the Kola Peninsula and the Black Sea as strategic areas that could face NATO retaliation if Russia acts aggressively. The remarks come amid what the report described as a major shift in German defense thinking, as Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s government seeks to build the strongest conventional army in Europe.

As part of that buildup, Neumann is leading a large rearmament program that includes advanced air-defense purchases, among them Patriot missiles, IRIS-T systems and Israel’s Arrow 3. The article says this is part of Berlin’s broader effort to prepare for a possible direct confrontation with Russia.