Mobile units able to maneuver quickly around NATO’s eastern flank could be preferable to permanent bases with large numbers of U.S. troops in the Baltics, top allied commanders said over the weekend after talks in Estonia.
“I don’t think we need (a) brigade-size unit permanently here in Estonia,” Lt. Gen. Martin Herem, commander of Estonia’s defense forces, said Saturday in Tallinn. “I don’t think it’s efficient.”
Herem said NATO is looking at the types of units needed to reinforce countries on Russia’s periphery, moves that come in the wake of the unprovoked Russian invasion of Ukraine that began Feb. 24.
U.S. Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley and other allied defense chiefs were in Estonia for two days of talks, which concluded Saturday.
Milley traveled on to Poland, where he met with U.S. troops Sunday at an undisclosed military base that is assisting in the transport of weapons to Ukraine. Milley cautioned that recent Russian setbacks in the war mean that U.S. troops will need to be vigilant, given Moscow’s unpredictability. Läs artikel