NATO has warned its members that too much red tape is hindering troop movements across Europe, a problem that could cause major delays were a conflict with Russia to erupt.
”We are running out of time. What we don’t get done in peacetime won’t be ready in case of a crisis or a war,” the chief of NATO’s logistics command JSEC, Lieutenant-General Alexander Sollfrank, told Reuters in an interview published on Thursday. […]
As it is, NATO forces have to navigate a variety of national regulations, stretching from the advance-notice required before ammunition can be shipped to the permissible length of military convoys and disease prophylaxis.
”We have a surplus of regulations, but the one thing we don’t have is time,” warned Admiral Rob Bauer, head of NATO’s military committee. ”Russia’s war against Ukraine has proven to be a war of attrition – and a war of attrition is a battle of logistics.”
Sollfrank said he would like to see a ”military Schengen”, an area of free military passage akin to the political Schengen zone that allows free movement within most of the EU.
NATO must not prompt a miscalculation in the Kremlin by giving the impression Moscow might stand a chance to win because the alliance is not prepared, he warned.
”We need to be ahead of the curve. We have to prepare the theatre well before Article 5 has been invoked”, he said, referring to NATO’s collective defence clause which effectively puts the alliance at war. Läs artikel