NATO: debating and defending Europe

[davidbfpo]

This thread was entitled Readiness of U.S. 7th Army, Germany and has been amended to the wider them in the posts to date - the European NATO conventional land combat force level and the US contribution. The new title is: Shrinking European NATO land combat levels and has been re-opened. Yes to enable the next post!

[davidbfpo]

Link:http://www.iiss.org/en/publications/military%20balance/issues/the-military-balance-2016

[AdamG]

Europe should build its own army and not rely on security guarantees from Washington, the European Commission president said following the election of Donald Trump. At the same time, Jean-Claude Juncker called for the preservation of the transatlantic partnership.

https://www.rt.com/news/366177-europ...urity-juncker/

[davidbfpo]

https://www.rt.com/news/366177-europ...urity-juncker/

That is little more than wishful thinking. The EU regularly tries to extend its role in security matters, even a common army etc. Nowt is said about the declining spending by most European NATO members.

[OUTLAW 09]

That is little more than wishful thinking. The EU regularly tries to extend its role in security matters, even a common army etc. Nowt is said about the declining spending by most European NATO members.

What is interesting is that the new members of NATO ie Poland and the Baltics have more than doubled their defense spending inside one year....Bulgaria by 30% and Romania by almost 43%.....followed by Czech republic at 14%....and new troop levels...

It has been the older NATO members ie the Dutch....Germans....Brits and Danes that have largely reduced both their budgets and actual military forces.

We even see Finland, Norway and Sweden beefing up both military numbers and funding....BUT one gets the feeling that with Brexit the UK is virtually out of the defense business for a number of coming years.

[OUTLAW 09]

EUobserver
✔
@euobs
#Brexit and the election in the #US have set a new course for #EU on the issue of #military integration.
https://euobserver.com/foreign/135877

[davidbfpo]

Hat tip to Politico for this article, which starts with:

The U.S. Army’s rapid reaction force in Europe is underequipped, undermanned and inadequately organized to confront military aggression from Russia or its high-tech proxies, according to an internal study that some who have read it view as a wake-up call as the Trump administration seeks to deter an emboldened Vladimir Putin. The Italy-based 173rd Airborne Brigade, a bulwark of the NATO alliance that has spent much of the past decade and a half rotating in and out of Iraq and Afghanistan, lacks “essential capabilities needed to accomplish its mission effectively and with decisive speed,” according to the analysis by the brigade, a copy of which was obtained by POLITICO.

Link:http://www.politico.com/story/2017/0...-russia-242273

It does rather stand in contrast to a SWJ article on a multinational NATO formation:http://smallwarsjournal.com/jrnl/art...17-an-analysis