[…] NATO has been rather slowly adapting its force structure in Eastern Europe since Russia’s first invasion of Ukraine in 2014. In 2016, the alliance launched enhanced Forward Presence, a plan to deploy rotational battlegroups to eastern members. Within a year, four multinational units of roughly 1,200 troops apiece had arrived in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland. The alliance expanded eFP after Russia’s second invasion of Ukraine last year, expanding the existing units to as many as 1,900 troops and dispatching new units to Slovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria, and Romania.
At the alliance’s June 2022 summit, NATO also changed its strategy for meeting a Russian invasion. Instead of fighting to slow the enemy advance until more friendly forces can join the fight, alliance members decided that they would work to deny any gains at all on allied territory. […]
First, eFP units must be larger. NATO doesn’t need to match Russians across the border troop for troop, but it must come closer in the three Baltic states and Poland. eFP units in these four countries should be full brigades of roughly 4,000 to 5,000 troops. Meanwhile, it remains a mystery why the alliance thinks it needs land-centric eFP units of any size in Slovakia, Hungary, or Bulgaria, where a Russian ground force incursion seems improbable—better to use these resources elsewhere. Läs artikel