NATO has stood up a new command who job it is to speed alliance troops and tanks around Europe in order to defend against a Russian invasion.
The new Joint Support and Enabling Command, based in Ulm, Germany, achieved initial operating capability on Sept, 17, 2019, NATO spokesperson Oana Lungescu announced.
Russia keeps around 760 tanks in units within quick striking distance of NATO’s Baltic members. NATO countries together keep around 130 tanks in the same region — and around 90 of those are American M-1s on their temporary rotation.
In 2016 RAND war-gamed a Russian invasion of the Baltics. In RAND’s scenario, the Russian forces quickly overrun lightly-armed NATO forces. The Western alliance quickly deploys helicopters and air-mobile troops to confront the Russian advance. But NATO tanks are too slow to arrive. Läs artikel