NATO officials agreed on April 29, 2016 that more troops well be deployed in the Baltic States and Poland to bolster the military capabilities in this region in response to Russia’s military build-up. In total there will be four new NATO battalions, with a total strength of about 4.000 troops, which will be deployed.
The force composition of these four new battalions is interesting. As with all NATO deployments we see the United States take on the majority of the troop contributions and in this case the United States will deliver two battalions or half the troops that is agreed on. The other two battalions will be drawn from the German and British armed forces and this is interesting to see.
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| Europe will take on a more active role by delivering two of the four battalions |
To those that study the security challenges in the Baltic Region it should not come as a surprise that Germany is deploying a battalion to the Baltic States. Over the past months Germany has becoming more active in the defence of the Baltic Region with arms sales to Lithuania and the plan to join the Polish military exercise Anaconda 2016. Germany seems to be most drawn to developing closer ties with Lithuania and thus it comes as no surprise that German officials want their battalion to be stationed in Lithuania.
With a British and a German battalion to be deployed in Eastern Europe we notice that Europe is starting to play a bigger and more sincere role when it comes to the defence of the European Union. Up until now Western Europe was more focused on the southern flank of NATO. Over the past years the United States has been asking the Europeans to shoulder more of the burden in the defence of Europe while the United States are rebalancing their military power towards the Pacific Ocean as part of their Asian Pivot. Up until recently Western Europe has been very reluctant to meet this demand.
That Germany and the United Kingdom are the first countries to deliver the troops makes sense. Both are large countries in Europe and still have substantial military forces that could be used for such deployments. France also possesses a large military force but is currently more engaged in its former African colonies in order to create stability in these regions. Other countries like Italy and Spain are more concerned with the instability in Northern Africa and will most likely prefer to keep their forces at home.
The composition of the battalions is still open for debate. NATO officials are also making a demand that smaller members should aid in the composition of the battalions in order to share the burden. They propose that smaller nations deliver the logistics to support the battalions in their deployment. The question still remains if the infantry component of each battalion should be delivered from one nation or be multinational. Some NATO officials believe each battalion should be from a single country, to ensure it can fight effectively.
The four battalions will be stationed on a rotational basis rather than a permanent in order to circumvent the 1997 NATO-Russia Founding Act that prohibits the permanent stationing of NATO combat troops at the Russian border. It will be interesting to see if Germany and the United Kingdom will rotate different battalions in and out or if other nations will take over this role in the future. It seems likely that the two battalions Europe will be providing will be from different countries and that they follow a similar rotation as the Air Forces that contribute to the Baltic Air Policing mission above the Baltic States.
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