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2018-06-06 International-UN-NGOs
US pushes NATO to ready more forces to deter Russian threat
[AlAhram] The United States is pressing European allies to ready more NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A single organization with differing goals, equipment, language, doctrine, and structure....
battalions, ships and planes for combat, officials say, in a fresh move to shore up NATO's deterrence against a potential Russian attack.

U.S. Secretary of Defence Jim Mattis will seek broad agreement for the plan in Brussels on Thursday when alliance defence ministers meet, laying the ground for endorsement by NATO leaders at a summit in July, four U.S. and NATO officials and diplomats told Rooters.

The plan would require NATO to have 30 land battalions, 30 air fighter squadrons and 30 navy ships such as destroyers ready to deploy within 30 days of being put on alert, although the proposal does not discuss specific troop numbers or a deadline for setting up the strategy.

The size of battalions vary across NATO, from 600 to 1,000 soldiers.

This lays down a challenge for European governments, pilloried by U.S. President Donald Trump
...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States...
for slashing military spending after the Cold War, to remedy long-running problems with helicopters and jets that are grounded for lack of parts.

"We have an adversary (Russia) that can move quickly into the Baltics and Poland in a ground attack," said one senior NATO diplomat who was briefed on the U.S. plans.

"We don't have the luxury of taking months to mobilise," the diplomat said, saying the U.S. idea was known as 30-30-30-30.

One U.S. official said the initiative was primarily aimed at countering Russia and fitted with the Pentagon's 2018 National Defence Strategy, which accuses Moscow of seeking to "shatter the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation."

Russia's war games last year, involving what Western officials said were 100,000 troops, also prompted concerns about accidental conflicts that could be triggered by such exercises, or any incursions into Russian-speaking regions in the Baltics.

The Kremlin firmly rejects any such aims and says it is NATO which is the security threat in eastern Europe.

Wrong-footed by Moscow with Russia's seizure of Crimea in 2014 and its intervention in Syria's war in 2015, the United States is distrustful of the Kremlin's public message and wants to be ready for any eventuality.

Whose Troops?
With more than 2 million troops, NATO's forces outnumber those of Russia, whose active duty members are around 830,000, according to the International Institute of Strategic Studies, a British-based military think-tank.

Russia's annexation of Crimea prompted NATO to set up a small, rapid-reaction "spearhead" force and put four battalions in the Baltics and Poland, backed up by U.S. troops and equipment on rotation.

But is unclear how fast the alliance could move large troop numbers to its eastern flank and how long it could sustain them for, with La Belle France already stretched in Africa and British cutbacks reducing the size of deployable forces, officials said.

According to a 2016 study by the Rand Corporation, Britannia, La Belle France, and Germany could each muster a brigade of three or more battalions along with battle tanks and other armour in around a month. But their resources would be badly strained, leaving little capacity for any other conflicts.

Another unknown is how the U.S. '30-30-30-30' proposal would fit in with other initiatives put forward aimed at improving European military combat readiness and to address shortfalls in weaponry and other military assets.

The European Union
...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing...
last December launched a defence pact to develop crisis-response forces and work together to develop new helicopters and ships. French President Emmanuel Macron aims to set up a new French-led European "intervention force".

"We only have a certain amount of forces in Europe, and they cannot be committed to every military proposal," a second senior NATO diplomat said.
Posted by trailing wife 2018-06-06 00:00|| || Front Page|| [11132 views ]  Top

#1 Pff...shatter NATO...NATO members have done more to shatter NATO than Russia will ever do.

The NATO countries are useless boat anchors. They will never carry their fair share. Never. If they had to spend the 2% minimum, they'd have to make cuts in other parts of their budgets. This would mean the politicians would get voted out, and this must never be allowed to happen.

Some allies, screwing us like this.
Posted by Herb McCoy 2018-06-06 03:23||   2018-06-06 03:23|| Front Page Top

#2 
Posted by Jack Chaiter7913 2018-06-06 07:32||   2018-06-06 07:32|| Front Page Top

#3 Once again. F*'m. Sorry, Secty Mattis, but he who defends everything, defends nothing.
Posted by Procopius2k 2018-06-06 09:01||   2018-06-06 09:01|| Front Page Top

#4 Remember the 70's and 80's world of Red Storm Rising where armies stared at each other through the Fulda Gap? Only the hard-line Stalinists left in the Russia would miss it,but --- what a change! Taking 30 days, 30 days!, to pull a brigade together !?!
Posted by magpie 2018-06-06 10:48||   2018-06-06 10:48|| Front Page Top

#5 Simple solution: If you want to remain in NATO, you need to provide 2500 combat troops and support elements for each 5 million in your population. "Support elements" include everything from logistics to combat air support. Russia would sh$$ full-size cinder-blocks -- by the truckload.
Posted by Old Patriot 2018-06-06 22:10||   2018-06-06 22:10|| Front Page Top

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