Moscow To Deploy Hypersonic Missiles: NATO Increases Standby Troops To 300K, Near-Border Units Become Brigades

NATO military illustration. (Wikimedia Commons/Staff Sgt. Keith Anderson)

JAKARTA - The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) plans to increase the number of its standby troops by more than seven times, surpassing 300.000 personnel as an adaptation of a new strategy that portrays Moscow as a direct threat, while Russia is ready to deploy its hypersonic missiles to the border region as a warning against NATO.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February triggered major geopolitical changes in the West, prompting neutral countries Finland and Sweden to apply to join NATO and Ukraine to secure candidate status to join the European Union.

"Russia has abandoned the partnership and dialogue that NATO has been trying to build with Russia for years," NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said in Brussels, Belgium ahead of a NATO summit this weekend in Madrid, Spain.

"They have chosen confrontation over dialogue. We regret that, but of course, we need to respond to that reality," he told reporters.

The June 28-30 NATO summit comes at a pivotal time for the alliance, after the fiasco in Afghanistan and internal strife during the era of former US President Donald Trump, which threatened to pull Washington out of the alliance.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. (Wikimedia Commons/Fornyingsdepartementetption)

Stoltenberg said NATO in the future will have more than 300.000 troops on high alert, compared to the 40.000 troops currently making up the alliance's existing rapid reaction force, the NATO Response Force (NRF).

The new force model is intended to replace the NRF and "provide a larger pool of high-preparedness forces across the board, land, sea, air and cyberspace, which would have been previously commissioned, for special plans related to allied defense," a NATO official said.

Stoltenberg said NATO combat units in the eastern flank of the alliance closest to Russia, especially the Baltic states, would be upgraded to brigade level, with thousands of troops previously assigned to standby in countries further west, such as Germany as the center. fast reinforcements.

"Together, this represents the biggest overhaul of our collective deterrence and defense since the Cold War," he said.

Russia's Iskander-M hypersonic missile. (Wikimedia Commons/Vitaly V. Kuzmin)

Separately, the NATO official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the move would allow NATO to respond with more troops at short notice if needed.

The official added that the exact scale and composition of the troops were still being worked out and the transition was planned to be completed by 2023.

At the summit, NATO will also change its language in Russia from the current wording, immortalized at the 2010 Lisbon summit, describing Moscow as a strategic partner.

"I hope allies will make it clear that Russia poses a direct threat to our security, to our values, to the rules-based international order," Stoltenberg said.

At the same time, Stoltenberg dampened hopes for a breakthrough at the summit to address Turkey's opposition to Sweden and Finland's membership bids.

"I will not promise or speculate about a specific deadline. A summit is never a deadline," said Stoltenberg, who is due to meet the leaders of the three countries in Madrid on Tuesday.

As reported earlier, Russia firmly warned NATO not to violate Russian territory in Crimea, which if done could trigger a third World War, according to Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council Dmitry Medvedev, as quoted by Reuters from Argumenty i Fakty.

Regarding Finland's and Sweden's plans to join NATO, Medvedev, who is also the former President of Russia, confirmed that his country would strengthen its defenses, including deploying missiles at the border.

"Ready for retaliatory measures and that could include the prospect of installing Iskander hypersonic missiles on their doorstep," stressed Medvedev.