Strategic and tactical air transport aircraft including C-17s, C-5s, A330 MRTTs and C-130s from multiple nations have been busy moving units from the NATO Response Force along with national contributions to locations across NATO’s Eastern Flank.
“Allied Air transport aircraft are key in enabling the rapid movement of troops and supplies, allowing NATO to position its forces effectively during the evolving crisis,” said Lieutenant General Pascal Delerce, Deputy Commander, Allied Air Command.
“These movements underscore the Alliance’s cohesion and readiness to ensure the security of all member States,” he added.
Strategic and tactical air transport aircraft including C-17s🇬🇧, C-5s 🇺🇸, A330 🇫🇷 MRTTs and C-130s 🇵🇱 from multiple Allied nations have been busy moving units from the @NATO Response Force along with national contributions to locations across NATO's Eastern Flank#NATO pic.twitter.com/8y9tqkpiej
— NATO Air Command (@NATO_AIRCOM) March 4, 2022
NATO said in a news release here that allied air transport aircraft working alongside charter aircraft have been moving Allied troops from across the Euro-Atlantic area towards their new locations in Eastern Europe.
“This augments NATO’s presence in the region enhancing the speed, responsiveness and flexibility of the Alliance’s defence.”
According to NATO, These moves contribute to around 22,000 Allied land forces which are now under NATO command and control. Many of these forces are already deployed along the eastern flank of the Alliance, including: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria. Having forces in these eight nations under Supreme Allied Commander Europe’s command ensures “a robust and integrated shielding of NATO’s eastern borders”.
shame we shut down most of our bases in Germany, but there again thats what Putin will have been gambling on, the complete desicration of NATO forces on europian soil, the upside is we know his equipment is not that good juding by the damge the Ukranians have done, with not only equipment supplied by the western world but also Russians own abondoned equipment… any counrty buying Russian miliatry hardware might be thinking twice about it now
I do mostly agree but I think the lack of tactics, logistics, maintenance and planning are the real issues rather than the actual equipment.
A lot of these destroyed convoys we are seeing are lightly armoured vehicles being pushed forward and used as IFV’s / BMP’s which they simply are not.
I was LI in my time so very used to yomping everywhere regardless, but Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary themselves wouldn’t convince me to sit in one of those tin cans at the minute. NLAW magnets!!
There is a reason you see a lot of guys sat on or dismounted around these lightly armoured types of vehicles… They really are death traps and only any good for recce. Certainly not pushing into urban areas on what has turned out to be an almost ‘peer’ enemy.
I would add that however good UKR initially appear to be doing, if RU seriously put the hammer down it would be catastrophic.
i was 2LI and we had warrioir which to be fair at the time an excellent vehicle just a shme we did not have a better main armament, But we certainly had a few rpg hit,s out in Bosnia, but the extra bolt on armour took it like a champ, but with today,s advanced munitions i am not sure i would like to be inside a warrior with the extra armour…
Yeah Warrior took RPG’s in Herrick & Telic & mostly shrugged them off really… Wouldn’t fancy a modern ATGM though!
Shame about the Cannon really as when it was on target it was an effective weapon… Some right fanning around though to get it on target and sustain any kind of fire rate.
What about Joseph and the wee donkey?
I’d rather get a piggy back on that b*stard on the way into Kiev than sit in one of those troop carriers!!!
Kyiv. Not Kiev please. Ukranians have asked for correct. Non Russian spelling.
I was 1LI and only ever happy as far away from metal coffins as possible, Wheels and tracks are ok for Recce and getting near the front, but after that no bloody thanks.
Yet we keep hearing about NATO expansion! More countries yes, but most countries have disarmed to a degree and certainly don’t spend 2% of GDP or keep their forces at a level of readiness. I think all this will change now. Given the heavy weather the Russians are making of Ukraine, does anybody really believe they could successfully mount an opposed invasion of further countries? I don’t think so personally – other than the smaller Baltic states perhaps
As was once said in a different context “quantity has its own quality”. Would be good to have Sweden & Finland armed forces in the NATO orbat sooner rather than later I think.
At least Sweeden and Finland are already in the UK led Joint Expiditionary Force.
I think they will join NATO. Finlands parliament are going to debate that issue on Monday coming. Putin will be livid about that. How dare a neighbouring democratic country debate joining a peaceful defensive military alliance without his permission. Jumped up pig eyed knobhead. Sorry UKDJ. You can ban me for that if you like.
But that would mean invading another country unless you are saying Russia would magic up the sealift to get to UK…..
And we know how keen the troops all are on invading anywhere……
US / UK won’t attack Russia so don’t see the scenario.
Look at Germany in a matter of days has changed its response now investing €billions in it forces
Over the last few years, most of EU countries have underplayed their NATO COMMITMENT incl Germany. I think UK, US and a couple of the smaller countries have paid up. Perhaps some countries will learn from this
NATO just needs to keep re-enforcing and keep up the deterrent.
Got this in the mail today, my w/end t-shirt. Missus will be using it too.
👍
Must get one too. To misquote Gen Patton “ A man that eloquent has to be supported”.
Mines arrived too👍
Got mine really fast, within a few days.
Went for black instead of white.
Mine came yesterday.
One aspect of of President Putin’s unlooked for legacy will have been to galvanise N.A.T.O.’s ‘passenger’s’ into doing more, buying more and generally waking up. That can be no comfort to the Ukrainians, alas.
How many Ukrainian civilians need to die before NATO sends in the air strikes? (Like Kosovo in 1999).
The European public opinion will not stand for a genocide. So is it 100,000 or 1,000,000?
Is NATO hoping that Putin has a unfortunate accident….
Let’s see as a British European I support our forces getting involved in Ukraine I didn’t in Iraq,
Your Very quick to send Nato troops into a non Nato partner. And then giving a mad man the right to attack everyone. Russians if pushed like the Ukraine’s will fight to defend themselves and poking a bear with that stick, Before Nato is ready isn’t wise. Russia spent 3 months moving 250,000 troops around the Ukraine. NATO and its partners are moving, just not in the Media.
So how many deaths do we have to have before NATO action? What is the butchers bill?
Once Putin has taken out Ukraine he will not stop – other Eastern NATO states will be attacked. So giving him the “right to attack” is nonsense.
NATO bombed Serbia in 1999 because they were ethnically cleansing Kosovo of Albanians. The European citizen’s public opinion will not take it kindly seeing a million or two dead Ukrainians. Hitler exterminated millions – will Europe stand for another genocide?
A true parallel is Kuwait. Saddam made the same claims as Putin. Said Kuwait had always been naturally part of Iraq and wasn’t a real country. We went in there and unfortunately had to go in again.
Kuwait is an interesting one. Iraq did not need to flatten the cities to conquer the country. So the civilians survived.
In Syria Russia has flatten cities. I would call that ethnic cleansing (genocide).
The Ukrainian are putting up a strong fight – so the only way they will be defeated is by starvation and total destruction of the cities (genocide). So far you have 1 million refugees – what happens when we hit 5 million or 10 million?
I don’t think the European citizens will stand for that scale of destruction.
Plus Putin will need to be defeated militarily – he will not stop once he destroys Ukraine. The USA/ Canada will need to surge their forces into Europe. Once that’s happened Putin will have to decided if he wants peace or a wider war with NATO.
Power Politics. Peace through superior firepower.
No one’s saying send troops into Russia what people are saying is send troops into Ukraine whilst Putin may be mad enough to fire nukes because he’ll be nice and safe his generals won’t and I believe if the war is limited to Ukraine that won’t happen
Boot Russia from the UN and create a peace keeping force if necessary
Just remember all? There are loads of Russian Forces. Walking home who once the truth was obvious to the convoys, returned home, refusing to fight fellow Russian/Ukraine, they are related and friends. Big mistake the little weasel made! Has to higher in foreign pay as you go militias .
Now someone demand Boris get finger out and get the conscription letters drawn up and get the training going, lets not be caught with our troops at a dis advantage as before in 1939, while the other side had been training and rearming, sick example French Mounted Troops Charging Opposition Tanks? Need I say more. This latest DICTATOR requires a bloody nose or nappy change!
How long did it take to suppress Iraq after they stepped into Kuwait? The simple logistics not spoken about is like the reforger exercises that used to take weeks to get the stateside units into place. Remember, we’ve unfortunately have drawn down many military assets from Europe over the last two decades, so we’re actually not really prepared. The US probably is ramping up quietly and not making a big fuss to tip off the Russians and to prevent public resistance to the idea. And Putin having an unfortunate accident would actually be divine intervention of the highest order.
Will we still bin our C-130s?
Yes, RAF no longer sees them as a prime mover, as they can no longer move a suitable payload. with the modern fighting units to heavy or to large for a c-130s and there soon to need maintenance looming
Points taken but even in the current climate?
To late for this…
We lost.
Think the convoy was just something of a ruse…poorly equipped , conscripted troops..!!!
As this progresses he will use his better troops and don’t underestimate the equipment he has , some of it is better than ours in the west..!!!
The logistics of NATO seem to work well, as does the electronic surveillance. (I am going to venture that the RAF plays a very strong role in both of these fields).
I don’t want to sound too much like Cleon of Athens, but the USAF stands alone with strategic bombing capability; I wonder if it is time the either us, or other partners in NATO took a share of the burden from the US in this sphere – maybe people thought that strategic bombing would have no part in a peer, or near peer conflict, but even disregarding the range of stand off weapons that can be deployed by a strategic bomber, we can see with Russia’s logistical ineptitude, there is still relevance for area bombing; what land deployment ever goes to plan? Russia knows they could not present a target rich environment such as that north of Kyiv to the US – they would have to organise things differently*…..and I think we can see that they would probably be unable to do that – just the threat of area bombing would all but deny a Russian assault.
*From the current conflict it does appear that the Russian airforce could be suppressed. And on the flipside of that, all those bears that the Russians have somehow managed to keep flying must seem pretty useless to them now – a bear would last about 0.8 seconds in NATO airspace in a shooting war.
Its a good point. Strategic bombing could really mess up massed Russian tank and troop emplacements. Their convoy north of kyiv for example. However effective strategic bombing requires air superiority. That would be contested by Russias air force. Therefore stealth aircraft like F35, F117As, B2s would be needed to take down air defences to allow strike fighters to do their thing.
RAF is going to need to retain tranche 1 Eurofighter. Still better than msjority Russian airfocre + order tranche 4 (24-36) as well as 36-48 more F35Bs, put back on 2 more Wedgetails, replace C130s entirely with A400s and get more dtones into service. Tarantis stealth drones would be very useful to target pesky Russian S400/S500 series air defence systems.
be safe
The US better send a full Navy battel group to the Taiwan area along with heavy military ground and air defense equipment. This should include the troops/tech personnel needed to train the Taiwan military on how to use all the equipment.