SSince the first Russian attack on Ukraine began, NATO has increased its presence on the eastern flank of Allied territory. The aim was to show solidarity with Poland and the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Germany has been involved from the start and is currently the only country in the European Union to lead one of the four combat groups of the so-called “Enhanced Forward Presence”. With the combat groups, NATO reacted to the illegal annexation of Crimea by Russia and the continued destabilization of Ukraine, which the alliance caught completely unprepared in 2014. Since then, NATO has again greatly improved its responsiveness.
While the Americans have been regularly moving around 3,000 to 5,000 soldiers across Europe to Poland since 2017, Great Britain leads the Battlegroup in Estonia, Canada that in Latvia and Germany the small NATO force in Lithuania stationed in Rukla. In addition to members of the Bundeswehr, other nations are represented there. The army sends larger parts of a battalion. The commander of the current contingent has been Lieutenant Colonel Daniel Andrä with soldiers from Panzergrenadier Battalion 411 from Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania for a few weeks. His area includes around 500 soldiers from Germany, plus another 500 from other countries.
Because of the deteriorated security situation, Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht (SPD) had already sent another 350 soldiers and vehicles from the Bundeswehr to Lithuania last week, including heavy tank howitzers. More reinforcements are planned, as the minister announced on Thursday. Overall, these troops have some combat value, but above all they make it clear that an attack on them and their country of deployment would affect the whole of NATO.
Can be installed within a few hours
Should a confrontation occur, for example if Russian units cross the border in Estonia, NATO has had three reinforced brigades, each with around 5,000 soldiers, at its disposal as rapid reaction troops since 2017. One of these brigades can be deployed within a few hours. This year it should be a French-led brigade that has the highest operational readiness as the Very High Readiness Joint Task Force (VJTF).
In the event of a confrontation with Russia, in addition to the French brigade, the German one, planned for 2023, would immediately be in combat. She is currently in the stand-up phase, so she can be mobilized relatively quickly. The Jägerbrigade 37 is currently preparing for its task together with multinational troops. NATO recently reduced the originally quite long mobilization time from 30 days to seven days, which poses a fairly big challenge for the Bundeswehr, since vehicles and many pieces of equipment have to be borrowed from other associations in order to be fully equipped.
In addition to the army, the German Navy is also regularly present in NATO formations in the Baltic Sea and has greatly expanded cooperation with the countries bordering the alliance. There has also been closer cooperation with Sweden, which is not a member of NATO, since 2014. The Air Force also makes a contribution to protecting the Alliance’s borders. She is regularly present with Eurofighters when it comes to showing Russian military aircraft the limits of NATO airspace and occasionally escorting them during the intensified “Baltic Air Policing”. German Eurofighters are available for this for eight months of the year.
In addition, the Air Force is involved with increasing intensity in monitoring NATO’s south-eastern flank. After three Eurofighters have been deployed from Romania for some time, three more jets were deployed there on Thursday to counter possible Russian attacks on NATO airspace or on Black Sea waters off NATO countries.
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