Friday, July 14, 2017

Defending the Springboard

Poland will buy advanced Patriot air defense missiles. This is good for Poland and NATO which needs secure air space to reinforce Poland to project power to fight for the Baltics from that new focal point of NATO reinforcement of the east.

This is good:

"A memorandum was signed tonight that the U.S. government has agreed to sell Poland Patriot missiles in the most modern configuration," [Poland's Defence Minister Antoni] Macierewicz said in a news conference broadcast on public television on Thursday morning.

Poland is the new center of gravity for America's defense of NATO. The ability to protect Poland's air space to prevent Russia from interfering with ground and aerial reinforcements flowing into Poland is important to have a credible defense.

Hopefully, in case of war, the Germans and Poles quickly attack and occupy the Russian Kaliningrad base area that has the missiles that most threaten NATO reinforcements.

In related news, another forward springboard will also get Patriot missiles:

On July 10, the U.S. State Department approved the sale of seven Patriot Configuration-3+ firing units worth up to $3.9 billion [to Romania]. In addition to the necessary technical equipment to operate the system (radars, control station, antenna, launching stations and electrical power plants), the State Department approved the purchase of 56 Patriot MIM-104E Guidance Enhanced Missile-TBM (GEM-T) missiles and 168 Patriot Advanced Capability-3 Missile Segment Enhancement (MSE) missiles.

Russia is upset. Naturally. Oddly, they like their potential victims to be helpless or nearly so.

UPDATE: America is improving a base in Romania to help reinforce the area; as we are doing in Bulgaria as well.