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NATO Conducts First Test Of “Russia Rapid Response Force”
NATO Conducts First Test Of “Russia Rapid Response Force”
As Russia decries Washington’s “anti-Russian” foreign policy and alleged efforts by the US to undermine the global nuclear power balance — and as Congress and NATO do their best to confirm Moscow’s fears by voting to provide lethal aid to Kiev and by conducting military exercises along the Russian border, respectively —NATO is now set to test a new “Very High Readiness Joint Task Force,” which will see soldiers from the Czech army ready for deployment within two days. The latest NATO sabre rattling also involves German and Dutch forces and, as APreports, is set to ramp up in the coming months:
NATO is completing a first testing of its new force created to face new challenges from Russia.Some 150 soldiers from the Czech army’s 43rd airborne battalion have been training to be ready for deployment within 48 hours “as NATO reevaluates the risks,” Maj. Gen. Jiri Baloun said Thursday. The previous NATO standard times for that were between 10 and 80 days, Baloun said.
In the Netherlands, 900 German and 200 Dutch soldiers have been doing the same. The units will be moved for further trials to Poland in June while some 25,000 NATO troops will complete the exercise of the new force in Italy, Portugal and Spain in October and November.
The units belong to NATO’s new Very High Readiness Joint Task Force.
And here’s what NATO itself has to say about the endeavor:
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
When Centralization Scales Beyond Our Control
When Centralization Scales Beyond Our Control
In an article about NATO exercises in Estonia, just 300 yards from the Russian border, Daniel McAdams at the Ron Paul Institute makes a point that I want to use to make a much broader point. Not the provide answers, though, just to provide questions. McAdams quotes the Guardian review of a book by George Sakwa:
Russian military plane over international waters 25 miles from the UK coast is “real and present danger” to NATO. Yet… Yet yesterday US combat vehicles conducted a military parade and show of military force in Estonia just 300 yards – yards! – from the Russian border. That is just over 60 miles from downtown St. Petersburg. This is not a provocation, we are to believe. This is not a “real and present danger” to Russia. NATO is exempt from the rules it imposes on its enemies. In the Guardian’s review of a new book by Politics professor George Sakwa, the current fallout from a near quarter century of post-Cold War NATO policies is perfectly captured:
The hawks in the Clinton administration ignored all this, Bush abandoned the anti-ballistic missile treaty and put rockets close to Russia’s borders, and now a decade later, after Russia’s angry reaction to provocations in Georgia in 2008 and Ukraine today, we have what Sakwa rightly calls a “fateful geographical paradox: that NATO exists to manage the risks created by its existence”.
That line bears repeating: “NATO exists to manage the risks created by its existence.”
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
NATO’s Russia Border Games
NATO’s Russia Border Games
When a Russian bomber flew over international waters some 25 miles off the southwest tip of England last week, UK Defense Secretary Michael Falloncalled Russia “a real and present danger.” The UK government scrambled jet fighters to meet the Russian aircraft as a show of force.
Said Secretary Fallon of the incident, “NATO has to be ready for any kind of aggression from Russia, whatever form it takes.” He added that, “NATO is getting ready,” warning particularly that Russia may soon move to invade the Baltic countries of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.
Reading the feverish Twitter feed of NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander Europe, Gen. Phil Breedlove, one would get the impression that NATO is already at war with Russia. Fighter jets sit menacingly atop aircraft carriers as the General beams about NATO member countries’ commitment to contribute to the fight.
The message is clear: Russia is about to attack! NATO has, for no understandable reason, found itself in Russia’s crosshairs. NATO cannot figure out how it is that Russia could possibly feel threatened by its actions, which, unlike Russia’s are not in the slightest provocative.
Russian military plane over international waters 25 miles from the UK coast is “real and present danger” to NATO. Yet…
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Pentagon deploys A-10 attack jets, 300 pilots to Germany amid Ukraine turmoil
Pentagon deploys A-10 attack jets, 300 pilots to Germany amid Ukraine turmoil
The US Air Force dispatched a dozen A-10 Thunderbolt II attack jets and about 300 airmen to Germany as part of a military exercise, which is expected to involve NATO allies in Eastern Europe amid simmering tensions over Ukraine.
The Cold War-era aircraft, nicknamed the Warthog, on Monday departed Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Arizona for Spangdahlem Air Base in Germany as part of Operation Atlantic Resolve.
READ MORE: Art of drills: 10 NATO war games that almost started armed conflicts
Lt. Col. Christopher Karns, a spokesman for the Air Force at the Pentagon, said the aircraft would“forward-deploy” to sites in Eastern European NATO states, where the units will participate in training with allied forces to “strengthen interoperability and…demonstrate US commitment to the security and stability of Europe,” he told military.com.
The highly reliable A-10 carries a seven-barrel GAU-8/A Avenger Gatling gun that fires 30mm rounds designed to destroy tanks and other armored combat vehicles.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
US refuses N. Korea’s proposal to suspend nuclear tests, calls it ‘implicit threat’
US refuses N. Korea’s proposal to suspend nuclear tests, calls it ‘implicit threat’
The White House has criticized North Korea’s proposal to temporarily halt nuclear tests if Washington cancels military drills with South Korea. Jen Psaki called the offer, reported in the media, “an implicit threat.”
“A new nuclear test would be a clear violation of North Korea’s obligations under multiple UN Security Council resolutions,” US State Department Spokesperson Jen Psaki told reporters.
According to Psaki, Pyongyang’s statement, which “inappropriately links routine US-ROK [South Korea] exercises to the possibility of a nuclear test by North Korea is an implicit threat.”
“We call on [the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea] to immediately cease all threats, reduce tensions, and take the necessary steps toward denuclearization needed to resume credible negotiations,” she added.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Iran stages massive military display to ‘send message of peace’ to neighbors — RT News
Iran stages massive military display to ‘send message of peace’ to neighbors — RT News.
Iran has launched a six-day exercise involving all branches of its military. The large-scale, armed forces display is meant as a demonstration of defense capabilities and a test of new weapons, Iranian officials said.
Codenamed Mohammad Rasoulallah (Mohammad, the Messenger of God), the drills launched on Thursday encompass a territory of some 2.2 million square kilometers, Iranian news television Press TV reported.
It stretches from the Strait of Hormuz and the Sea of Oman, where the Iranian Navy will be testing its warships and submarines, to the southeastern part of the country, where units of the army will be participating in maneuvers.
Right on the eve of the drills – the largest in the region – the Iranian military said they planned to bring state-of-the-art missile defense systems into its integrated air defense shield. And in September, Iran promised to unveil and launch several new hi-tech radar systems capable of tracing and identifying smaller flying objects like spy drones.
