Thursday, February 15, 2024

Sustaining NATO Forces in Eastern Europe

Am I the only one shocked at how long it takes NATO to react to threat stimuli? Yes, Russia is a threat to European security. Supply lines to the new front line would be great.

Good

Germany, the Netherlands and Poland plan to develop a military corridor that would make it easier to move troops and equipment between Europe’s North Sea ports and NATO’s eastern flank, at a time of growing hostility with Russia.

The countries signed a declaration of intent on Jan. 30 to develop the corridor, with plans to tackle infrastructure choke points, such as low bridges, and slash bureaucracy around permits for cross-border transport of ammunitions and other dangerous goods, the Dutch Ministry of Defence said in a statement. They’ll also study how military rail transports can be prioritized over routine civilian traffic.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine two years ago made European countries realize they need to be prepared to move their military across the continent, something that previously hadn’t been high on the agenda[.]

It's about time we fixed that logistics desert:

Not only didn't NATO move troops into the new NATO states until Russia invaded Ukraine [in 2014], NATO didn't even create the logistics network to support pushing forces into eastern NATO.

We're out of practice moving troops to Europe, but we will learn.

Hell, I thought we should have learned that Russia is hostile in 2008, when Russia invaded Georgia:

The return of a belligerent Russia means that the age of peace is over in Europe. Which means that the logic of reducing our Army in Europe is blown away, killed in Gori, Georgia under the weight of Russian armor.

Because you can't drop the U.S. Army into Poland on a large scale with a logistics desert behind it.

NOTE: TDR Winter War of 2022 coverage continues here.

NOTE: I'm adding updates on the Last Hamas War in this post.