NATO General: The Alliance Is Ready to Shift to Wartime Footing Very Quickly

NATO's Deputy Supreme Allied Commander, Lieutenant General Mead, told a Polish radio station that the alliance is prepared to switch to a wartime footing very quickly. He said specific details of the plans cannot be disclosed, as they form part of NATO's classified strategy, but the ability to mobilize rapidly has already been tested.

"These plans are based on our threat assessments, and it's precisely on that basis that we train for speed of response. We are increasingly focused on creating the conditions to shift very quickly between peacetime, crisis, and conflict, should it ever come to that," the general said.

Lessons from the War in Ukraine

According to the lieutenant general, NATO is closely studying the experience of the war in Ukraine in order to draw lessons and prepare for a worst-case scenario. "We still consider a direct attack on NATO to be highly unlikely. But even the unlikely must be prepared for," the commander stressed.

As the Polish radio station notes, the question of how quickly the alliance can respond in a crisis is becoming increasingly significant, as European leaders work to strengthen deterrence and ensure they can rapidly deploy troops and equipment should a conflict break out.

A Possible Test of Article 5

There are concerns that Russia could attempt to attack a NATO member state within the coming months or years in order to test the strength of Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty on collective defense. The Baltic states — Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania — are most frequently mentioned in this context.

What form such an attack might take remains unclear. Experts consider the most likely scenario not to be a conventional military assault, but rather a large-scale act of sabotage or the infiltration of so-called "little green men" — armed personnel without insignia.

Source: novinky.cz