Sabine Siebold – Reuters July 8, 2024
NATO will need between 35 and 50 extra brigades to fully realise its new plans to defend against an attack from Russia, a military source told Reuters.
The source, speaking on condition of anonymity, declined to provide any more detail about the plans, which are secret. A brigade consists of between 3,000 and 7,000 troops, so generating 35 to 50 more such units would present a significant challenge..
In another sign of the scale of NATO’s challenge as it revamps its posture to take the threat of a Russian attack more seriously following the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, a security source said Germany alone would have to quadruple its air defence capacities.
At a summit in Vilnius last year, NATO leaders agreed on the alliance’s first major defence plans in more than three decades, and officials have been working on translating the documents into concrete military demands since then.
NATO leaders are expected to get an update on the plans in Washington this week, at a summit to mark the 75th anniversary of the transatlantic security alliance.
Asked for comment, a NATO official said the alliance’s military planners had identified “detailed requirements for troops and weapons needed to defend the alliance”.
“Air and missile defences, long-range weapons, logistics as well as large land manoeuvre formations are among our top priorities,” the official added..
“NATO will likely set more demanding capability targets for allies, as we develop forces that can implement our plans and meet the threats we face. We are confident that our deterrence is and will remain strong.”
The defence ministry in Berlin declined to comment on NATO’s future plans as they are classified. It said all allies were called upon to coordinate with NATO on capability requirements, and that these efforts would stretch into the next year.
ADDITIONAL PERSONNEL
It is unclear from where NATO allies might draw the additional personnel for 35 to 50 brigades. Troops could be shifted from other parts of the armed forces, additional soldiers could be recruited, or NATO members could opt for a mix of both approaches.
Air defence is another major shortfall that NATO military planners have identified, as the war in Ukraine has demonstrated the importance of these systems to protect critical military and civilian infrastructure.
Such systems would be particularly important for Germany as a major logistics hub and staging area in any potential conflict with Russia.
Germany had 36 Patriot air defence units when it was NATO’s frontline state during the Cold War and even then it relied on additional support from NATO allies.
Today, German forces are down to nine Patriot units, after donating three to Ukraine since the Russian invasion in 2022, and the government has started placing orders for Patriot and other air defence systems to boost inventories.
Ground-based air defence systems such as Raytheon’s Patriot are built to intercept incoming missiles.
After the Cold War, many NATO allies scaled down the number of air defence units to reflect the assessment that they would in future only have to deal with a limited missile threat, coming from countries such as Iran.
This perception changed drastically with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which sent NATO allies scrambling to increase stocks of ammunition and tackle air defence system shortfalls.
The agreement on the first major defence plans since the Cold War, dubbed “regional plans” by NATO, signified a fundamental shift for the Western military alliance, which had seen no need to draw up new large-scale defence plans for decades as it believed post-Soviet Russia no longer posed an existential threat.
There is no way going forward that NATO can ever be referred to as a “defensive” alliance ever again…it’s clearly provoked this war..before that destroying Libya, Serbia.
It’s all bullshit. NATO Nazi expansion and suddenly defence, which it was established for, but in reality, NATO is a predatory organisation, as its record shows.
It’s latest genocidal war mongering endeavour in Nazi UKraine has failed big time.
You’ll note the Reuters Nazis rag ponders where these troops will come from, but doesn’t mention ‘conscription’, where Nazi Starmer has been silent. No U-turn there, then.
The truth, NATO is finished. Many members don’t want to turn out like UKraine, and keep in mind, the SMO was light touch and even now, the Russian military is still on 1.5/2, on a scale of 1 to 5, and that’s without using hardly any air power. Tanks and artillery are so, so, but planes are very component rich.
If half the Russian airforce were used in UKraine, the war would be over in two months.
The raw materials for this potential conflict, have to be transported to NATO countries by sea. For Russia, they do not. Russia could lay waste to NATO surface ships with their array of missiles, and that’s the end of the war in effect. In the current Ukraine war, the maritime supply line hasn’t been touched by Russia. Thus the war grinds on. Anybody should recall the USA to the UK supply line in WW2. That was fraught enough, with no modern weapon systems, but U- boats and torpedoes. If the Germans had had the current Russian missile systems, no ship from USA to UK would have made it. And that is exactly how it would be in this proposed war.
Hide your sons and daughters. Don’t allow them to be gun fodder for the rich men’s wars.
Its all being coordinated between NATO & Russia. If the war between Russia & Ukraine was legitimate it would have been over within a month or two–but ZWOG instructed Putin to retreat before reaching Kiev so they could initiate their phony prolonged war of attrition to ice thousands/millions of whites. The Putintards have difficulty mentally syncretizing or rationalizing that the second strongest military in the world couldn’t take Kiev/Ukraine. Thus revealing the scam & that they’re all in on it.
in our times boots on ground are superfluos . they
have all the remote controled missiles, rockets +
joy sticks at Ramstein . soldiers dont need to die-
only civilians as JHWH loves burned flesh .
carl jones still hasn’t figured out that they’re all in on it
It is not intended that there should be a conventional hot war with Russia. NATO will lose and they now know it. The Hidden Hand prefers to bring Putin down by subversion and assassination. If necessary however, they will resort to a limited nuclear exchange.