Huge NATO plan for the "intervention force": Does the West scare Putin - and how is that supposed to work?
Created: 06/27/2022, 16:55
By: Markus Hofstetter
As a reaction to the Ukraine war, NATO wants to be able to react faster and more powerfully to possible attacks.
But the desired goals are very ambitious.
Brussels - NATO wants the Ukraine war.
see it as a wake-up call: the member states want to do much more for their defence.
An example is Germany, the Bundeswehr is to be upgraded with a special fund of 100 billion euros.
Shortly before the NATO summit on Tuesday (June 28), Jens Stoltenberg set an exclamation point.
The NATO Secretary General announced that the alliance's rapid reaction force, NRF (NATO Response Force), will be expanded from the current 40,000 to over 300,000 soldiers.
According to him, the heads of state and government of the 30 alliance countries want to decide this in Madrid.
But there are apparently a large number of unanswered questions - and imponderables.
How can the NATO countries meet the challenge - and how will Russia react?
An overview.
NATO expands NRF intervention force: heavy equipment and supplies should be on site
What do the plans even mean in practice?
The reorganization of the NRF is part of a new NATO force model that includes more forces in high readiness.
In addition, these forces are to be assigned to specific areas and more heavy equipment and supplies are to be positioned on site.
This means that German soldiers could be scheduled to support Lithuanian troops in the event of a Russian attack.
The troops would also be given fixed times for operational readiness.
Some units should be ready for installation within a maximum of ten days, others in 30 or 50 days.
In peacetime, the troops should generally be under national command, but could then be requested by the supreme commander of NATO forces in Europe (Saceur) in an emergency.
The Bundeswehr also provides Panzerhaubitzen 2000 for the NATO Rapid Reaction Force.
Guns can be seen during the NRF certification exercise in the Wettiner Heide.
(May 11, 2022) © Thomas Imo/photothek.net/imago
According to Stoltenberg, the existing multinational NATO battlegroups in the member states on the eastern flank are to be expanded to brigade level.
The association in Lithuania, for example, currently has 1,600 soldiers, of which around 1,000 soldiers are from Germany, the leading nation.
A brigade usually consists of around 3,000 to 5,000 soldiers.
NATO expands NRF intervention force: regional defense plans should be ready in 2023
Above all, the expansion of the NATO battlegroups to brigade level fits the warning of Bernd Schütt, the new commander of the Bundeswehr Operations Command.
He sees the greatest danger of a military escalation with Russia on NATO's north-east flank, where the situation has become more threatening because of Russian threatening gestures in the dispute over transit traffic to the Russian Baltic Sea exclave of Kaliningrad.
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"The presence of land forces plays a central role here," said the dpa lieutenant general.
It's more than a tripwire.
Putin will have to think very carefully about the reaction.
This expansion could be accomplished quickly.
Bundeswehr and NATO intervention force: more than 100,000 German soldiers may be necessary
This is what the plans mean for the NATO countries:
But the expansion of the rapid reaction force is still a dream of the future.
Should the NATO members in Madrid decide on the conversion, it will take some time before it is ready.
Because the details for emergencies are to be defined in new regional defense plans, which should be ready next year.
Whether that will be fast enough given the perceived threat from Russia cannot be predicted.
In addition, the member states of the NRF must first provide the additional personnel and equipment.
The example of Germany shows the great dimension of the challenge.
According to the Bundeswehr, it is currently providing a total of around 13,600 soldiers for the NATO rapid reaction force.
Including national support forces from the medical service, logistics and military police, among other things, there are even around 16,800.
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Assuming that the Bundeswehr's NRF share remains the same, that would mean more than 100,000 soldiers in the future.
A total of around 185,000 women and men are currently serving in the German armed forces.
Bundeswehr and NATO intervention force: major equipment shortages must be eliminated
In addition, these soldiers must be appropriately equipped.
But currently the deficiencies in the Bundeswehr are blatant.
According to the 2021 annual report by the military commissioner Eva Högl (SPD), the operational readiness of large equipment was sometimes just under 50 percent.
There is also a lack of everyday equipment such as protective vests or winter jackets, which sometimes have to be sent to the area of operation first.
The operational capability of the Bundeswehr is to be improved with the special fund of 100 billion euros.
But the award procedures are lengthy and the production of the high-tech devices takes time.
The 229 to 350 new Puma armored personnel carriers to be ordered are to be delivered by 2029.
Russia and the expansion of the NATO intervention force: Putin could feel compelled to make new threats
How is Russia reacting?
Waldimir Putin has not yet responded to Stoltenberg's announcement of the expansion of the NATO Rapid Reaction Force.
The Russian President could feel threatened by this step and feel prompted to make further threatening gestures, for example in the dispute over transit traffic to Kaliningrad.
However, Putin could also put further pressure on the West by further cutting already reduced energy supplies.
