Washington Post: Baltic and Eastern European countries are asking the United States to expedite the supply of weapons to them So, Estonia wants to receive MLRS HIMARS and Reaper attack drones, and Poland is waiting for ordered anti-aircraft missile systems Patriot, HIMARS, F-16 fighters and Abrams tanks
Eastern flank countries NATO is demanding more troops and more weapons to contain Russia, writes The Washington Post.
About 100,000 US troops are stationed across Europe, but the “more vulnerable” US allies consider this insufficient, the newspaper notes.
The Baltic and Eastern European countries are asking the United States to increase defense production to speed up the implementation of orders for weapons.
«HIMARS [US multiple launch rocket systems], Reaper [attack drones], counter-battery radars— this is what we will need most in terms of the lethal combat power that will inevitably be required to contain Russia, — Estonian Defense Ministry Chancellor Kusti Salm said in an interview with the newspaper.
At the same time, Polish officials believe that the defense of the republic would be helped if the United States accelerated the supply of weapons that had already been promised to Warsaw. Poland is expecting US Patriot, HIMARS, F-16 fighter jets and Abrams tanks.
Meanwhile, Latvian Defense Minister Artis Pabriks told reporters that his country wants modern long-range rocket artillery as well as air defense systems. and coastal defense, which are usually not available to countries with a modest budget.
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At the end of June, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg announced that the bloc was going to increase the rapid reaction force from 40,000 to 300,000 by 2023. At the same time, noted the coordinator for strategic communications of the National Security Council (NSC) John Kirby, Russia has no reason to consider the buildup of NATO troops on the eastern flank as a provocation. The NATO countries in the new Strategic Concept recognized Russia as “the most serious and direct threat to the security of NATO members and peace and stability in the Euro-Atlantic region.” The bloc will continue to counter the “Russian threats”, its “irresponsible rhetoric” and respond to “her hostile actions.”
In the spring, the US announced plans to deploy two Patriot batteries to Poland “in a proactive manner to counter any potential threats to the US, allied forces, and NATO territory.” The batteries will be transferred under Article 5 on NATO collective defense (which means that an attack on one of the NATO members will be considered an attack on all NATO members).
At the end of July, Pentagon departmental publication Stars and Stripes wrote that the United States was going to send fifth-generation Boeing F-22 Raptor fighters to Poland in support of NATO's mission to air cover the alliance's eastern flank. They will be stationed at the 32nd Tactical Air Base near the Polish city of Lask.
This week, the US mission to NATO announced that members of the US Army's elite 101st Airborne Division, known as the “Screaming Eagles”, will be transferred to Europe to strengthen the eastern flank.
The Kremlin noted that the “romantic period” in relations with NATO was replaced by everyday work. “Working days, so to speak, routine relations, lie in the fact that NATO, as it was created and conceived as an instrument of confrontation, it still performs these functions. NATO cannot perform any other functions simply by its very nature. That's how we treated NATO, that's how we treat NATO,” — said the press secretary of the President of Russia Dmitry Peskov.
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