Marta Hychko13:32, 04.06.24

According to existing plans, US troops should disembark in ports and head to NATO’s eastern flanks by land.

NATO is developing numerous “land corridors” to direct US troops and weapons to the front lines in the event of a major land war with Russia.

As The Daily Telegraph reports  with reference to sources, according to the currently developed plans, American soldiers will disembark in one of the five ports. Then they will be directed along pre-planned logistical routes to counter a possible attack by Moscow.

The “land corridors” are being developed against the background of warnings from the Alliance’s top leadership that Western governments should prepare for conflict with Russia in the next two decades.

“Land corridors” for the Americans

Logistics routes have become a key priority after NATO leaders agreed at a summit in Vilnius last year to put 300,000 troops on high alert to defend the alliance.

Current plans call for American troops to land in Dutch ports first and then travel by train through Germany to Poland. In the event of a Russian invasion of NATO, US troops will arrive in the port of Rotterdam and then be sent east.

But NATO is negotiating to expand routes to other ports to make sure that Russia can’t cut land lines of communication.

“Ukraine is suffering greatly from these Russian long-range missile attacks on logistics systems,” said Lt. Gen. Oleksandr Solfrank, head of NATO’s Logistics Directorate Jsec.

If NATO forces entering from the Netherlands are hit by Russian bombing or Moscow forces destroy northern European ports, the Alliance is going to focus on ports in Italy, Greece and Turkey.

From Italian ports, American troops can move overland through Slovenia and Croatia to Hungary, which shares a border with Ukraine.

Similar plans exist to transport forces from Turkish and Greek ports through Bulgaria and Romania to reach the Alliance’s eastern flank.

Plans are also being developed to transport troops through ports in the Balkans, as well as through Norway, Sweden and Finland.

In these corridors, the military will not be restricted by local regulations and will be able to freely transport cargo without the usual restrictions. 

NATO examines threat to logistics

Over the past five years, Jsec has conducted inspections to identify various routes that could be used to deliver troops to fight the Russian invasion. Ports in northern Europe, such as the Netherlands, Germany and the Baltic states, are considered particularly vulnerable to Russian missile attacks.

“Everything is designed in such a way that there is a need for resilience – reliability and reserves,” Solfrank said.

After warnings that NATO only has 5% of the air defenses it needs to cover its eastern flank, the Jsec commander is concerned about the surface-to-air capabilities to protect its key logistical hubs.

“Assessing the Russian war in Ukraine, we noticed that Russia attacked Ukrainian logistics bases. This leads to the conclusion that huge logistics bases will be attacked and destroyed first of all in a conflict situation. As for air defense… It is always not enough .I can’t imagine a situation where you have enough air defenses. This is a good example of the military principle: “If you want to be strong everywhere, you’re not strong anywhere,” Solfrank said.

(C)UNIAN 2024