The nations involved will be: Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia, Poland and Romania. The plan for responding to Russian attitudes regarding the Ukrainian crisis includes a rapid reaction force with the peculiarities of a fast deployment, and equipment pre-positioned in the 5 deposit bases.
Estimated times for intervention in a specific aircraft, where a criticality is developing, are estimated in 48 hours, with the mobilization of aircraft and surface units.
The UK has already announced its participation in the "spearhead" force with 1.000 soldiers, on the planned 4.000. At the same time, NATO has authorized a large-scale exercise, which will involve nine countries including Italy, and will be the first of a series of training operations that will affect the entire month of September, until early October. These include "Rapid Trident" in Ukraine, from 13 to September 20, which will be attended by a dozen nations.
All the exercises were already planned before the invasion of Crimea, but were extended to other member states, and passed under the NATO command.
From the 15 to the September 29, in Germany, the "Loyal Lance" will test the chain of command and control "in the intervention scenario based on the art. 5 in the Baltic countries".
From 3 to December 13, "Trident Lance" is scheduled, the most important and articulated exercise for the chain of command since the end of the Cold War.
A training program that does not seem so, but rather a demonstration of operational readiness, which combined with the evidence of the deployment of NATO forces on the Russian borders, could lead to an increase in the already critical levels of confrontation between the two blocs.
Giovanni Caprara
(photo: NATO archive)
