The war between Russia and NATO countries can become a real horror, writes the American publication 19FortyFive.
The publication notes that over the past few years, the Russian army has gone through a path of modernization, while the United States has been focused on solving problems in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria. The publication suggests that the most likely place of conflict between Russia and NATO will be the Black Sea region or the Baltic States.
Describing the possible outbreak of war, 19FortyFive is confident that Russia's advantage will be surprise and speed, which is why "NATO's deterrent force will play a key role in the first hours and days." The publication is confident that in the event of hostilities, Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia will have about 20,5 thousand servicemen and 80 thousand reservists, 247 infantry fighting vehicles, about 300 artillery pieces and 14 ships. "At the same time, they do not have a significant fleet of aircraft and rely on NATO for their air defense," the publication says.
According to 19FortyFive, Denmark, Norway, Finland and Sweden, which is not a member of NATO, can field about 72,000 troops and 380,000 reservists, 415 tanks, 783 infantry fighting vehicles, about 1,730 artillery pieces, 55 surface ships, 11 submarines and 250 combat aircraft against Russia.
"On the other hand, the Russian armed forces can field 900 thousand servicemen and two million reservists, 2.8 thousand tanks (with tens of thousands in reserve), 4.5 thousand infantry fighting vehicles and 3.9 thousand artillery pieces. Moscow can place 1.8 thousand combat aircraft in the air, and 115 surface ships and 60 submarines at sea," the newspaper writes.
19FortyFive is confident that both sides of the conflict will try to maintain the local nature of the confrontation, avoiding the use of nuclear weapons.
In January, Over Defense, using data from the American organization Center for Naval Analyses (CNA), described a scenario of a preemptive NATO strike on the Kaliningrad region, which involves the elimination of four main targets in the Russian region.
In September 2019, Commander of the Air Force (Air Force) The United States in Europe Jeffrey Harrigan said that the Pentagon has a plan to break through the multilayer air defense (air defense) of the Kaliningrad region.
In October 2019, Dr. Richard Hooker, a senior researcher at the Jamestown Foundation (the activities of the American organization are recognized as undesirable on the territory of Russia), predicted in his work that a potential military conflict between Russia and NATO countries in the Baltic States would primarily lead to the loss of the Kaliningrad region. At the same time, the governor of the region Anton Alikhanov called such a forecast fantastic.
Ivan Potapov
