2016/07/30

Road marches in Eastern Europe

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Distance Saint Petersburg, Russia to Vilnius, Lithuania: 734 km
Distance Saint Petersburg, Russia to Riga, Latvia: 577 km
Distance Saint Petersburg, Russia to Kaliningrad, Russia: 967 km
Distance Saint Petersburg, Russia to Warsaw, Poland: 1,173 km



"Pristina airport incident" convoy (with Russian 8x8 wheeled BTR-80 APCs), 1999:
Almost exactly 1,000 km travelled in almost exactly 24 hrs,
with 8 hours advance notice for the troops involved.

Distance Berlin, Germany to Warsaw, Poland: 574 km
Distance Berlin, Germany to Vilnius, Lithuania: 1,023 km

NATO Very High Readiness Joint Task Force standard: 
"The VJTF’s rapid yet flexible response times are what set it apart from other components of the NRF; some units will be ready to deploy in just two days, whilst the majority of units will be ready to move in less than seven days."

Two days till some of them begin to move. A full week and maybe some still didn't commence any movement. That's what NATO calls "very high readiness".


We should get rid of everyone who tolerates a state of affairs in which less than a heavy division equivalent's reinforcements would arrive at the Polish-Lithuanian border in less than 48 hours. Everyone. From major to minister of defence and NATO general secretary, from state-level state secretary of traffic to minister of foreign affairs. We should get rid of everyone who tolerates slowness.

We don't need bigger budgets, we don't need more brigades - we need to get rid of slowness and marginal "readiness".

S O
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