NATO dusts off a Cold War skill: troops on the move
NATO dusts off a Cold War skill: troops on the move
BRUSSELS - U.S. Admiral James Foggo has spent months planning the largest NATO exercise since the Cold War. Its first objective: to get the 50,000 soldiers in their place by the time the drills begin on Thursday.
The transfer of forces from 30 countries to Norway for the Trident Juncture maneuvers has been an effort almost as great as the exercises themselves. Ten thousand vehicles, 250 aircraft and 65 ships were sent, with most of the material directed to the south of Norway.
Putting everything in its place "is a serious logistical challenge," said the US Admiral, who is in charge of the exercises and generally oversees the joint operation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in Naples, Italy.
NATO Secretary General, Jens Stoltenberg, in the center, observing a F-18 Super Hornet terrain on the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier in the North Sea on October 12. The aircraft carrier was heading to the Norwegian coast for the Trident Juncture exercise.
Photo:
johan falnes / epa / Shutterstock
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Tuesday that all forces are in place for the start of the one-month exercises.
The trump president has repeatedly intimidated The European members of NATO for not spending enough on defense. A more immediate problem is that Europeans struggle to move the equipment they already have.
The logistical capabilities that were second nature during the Cold War have deteriorated. Mobility impediments include narrow rail and road tunnels, different track gauges and legal restrictions on sending munitions across borders. Many European officials say that road and rail bridges are too low for large military vehicles to pass under or too weak to support a convoy of 100-tonne battle tanks.
The mobility impulse parallels the alliance's effort to rebuild its arsenals, driven by The Russian seizure of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014. Military spending by European NATO members has increased by 14% in constant dollars since it touched a post-Cold War minimum around 2014.
The campaign to restore logistical capabilities includes both military equipment, modular bridges, and civil infrastructure, including ports and waterways, according to officials. Improving mobility can be more annoying than buying weapons due to the civil element. Politicians seldom associate wagons and customs regulations with national defense, however, they can be critical. And since NATO is a coalition, the great exercises vital to battle preparation require international cooperation.
"People underestimate combat logistics," said Elisabeth Braw, an associate member of the Royal United Services Institute, a think tank in London. "We are still way behind Russia in the movement of a large number of troops."
An example of this: the British Army sent more than 70 armored personnel carriers and Land Rovers vehicles to the Netherlands earlier this month for a trip to Norway designed to test mobility. Before they could enter the country, any trace of British soil had to be removed to avoid possible contamination of Norwegian farms.
A Norwegian military veterinary specialist "found garbage in places we did not know existed," said Lt. Harry Busby, who helped oversee the convoy. The vehicles used public roads, drove in groups of nine and spaced 20 minutes to avoid congestion along the 1,500-mile journey.
The Marder infantry fighting vehicles of the German Armed Forces are sent to Norway for NATO maneuvers from the seaport of Emden, Lower Saxony, on October 10.
Photo:
Mohssen Assanimoghaddam / Zuma Press
Smoothing logistics does not just mean moving troops to a battle or exercise zone. It could also deter attacks, says retired Lieutenant General Ben Hodges, who spent four years rebuilding mobility capabilities as a commander of US Army forces in Europe. He worries that Russia or some other adversary may be more adventurous if they believe that NATO can not respond quickly.
"The Russians would have to believe that the alliance has the ability to defeat everything they can achieve," said General Hodges, who retired in December. The swift action, he said, would ensure that "our politicians have other options besides a liberation campaign."
An armored transport vehicle of the Bundeswehr is cleared on September 16 in the German seaport of Emden, Lower Saxony, on September 16.
Photo:
Mohssen Assanimoghaddam / Zuma Press
After the seizure of Crimea, NATO and its members realized. to what extent their logistical capabilities had atrophied as the alliance's territory expanded. A dozen former communist countries joined together since 1999, pushing the eastern border of NATO much closer to Russia. However, NATO planners had "zero knowledge" of their physical infrastructure, such as bridges, said a NATO official. To remedy that, said the official, NATO launched a survey that involved "a huge amount of work."
Officials also identified hundreds of regulations across Europe that can slow troop movements, from traffic laws to environmental regulations on hazardous materials. Efforts are beginning to change the statutes, which restrict transport in times of peace but would be suspended in time of war.
NATO and the European Union in 2016 agreed to deepen cooperation in many fields, including mobility. The EU, which spends billions of euros a year to help members finance infrastructure projects, is adding NATO requirements to its standard specifications, and is dedicating € 6.5 billion ($ 7.45) million) of its next seven-year budget, starting in 2021, to guarantee strategic transportation. The facilities meet military needs.
At a NATO summit in July, leaders approved the creation of a new command to monitor logistics, largely in Europe, and another to ensure that the Atlantic and Arctic sea lanes remain open to supply Europe.
Alliance troops now routinely test mobility, as in the recent British convoy. The armored brigade Iron Horse of the EE. UU., Based in Fort Hood, Texas, in May turned for a deployment in Eastern Europe through the Belgian port of Antwerp. The logistics specialists used the measure to test barges and truckers' contractors, and not just trains as in two previous recent deployments. The multiple modes of transport allowed the team to leave the port faster, said an Army spokesman, exactly the kind of operational lesson planners who are now hungry to learn.
"There are significant signs of improvement" in the movement of troops across Europe, said the spokesman.
The Dutch marine vessel Hr. Johan de Witt, an amphibious transport ship, is loaded with vehicles and goods in Den Helder, the Netherlands, on October 15 before the NATO exercise in Norway.
Photo:
robin van lonkhuijsen / epa-efe / re / Shutterstock
The next step in Europe will be to organize trucks, ships and rail cars that can be convened at short notice, officials say. During the Cold War, European state railroads kept thousands of platform cars ready to transport tanks in the short term. Since 1989, they have been poured into waves of privatization and cost reduction. Buying civilian equipment for military use does not count for the spending commitments of NATO members, so deciding who will pay for assets that are often not used is still a matter of debate.
General Hodges said that buying transportation equipment has the advantage of being less controversial than acquiring weapons. "We are not asking for more German tanks, we are asking for more German trains," he said. "Just go and buy them."
Write to Daniel Michaels in daniel.michaels@wsj.com
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