BRUSSELS, June 27. /TASS/. NATO plans to beef up its battlegroups on the alliance’s eastern flank and boost its high readiness forces to over 300,000 from the current 40,000, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told a press conference on Monday in the run-up to the alliance’s summit in Madrid.
"At the summit, we will strengthen our forward defenses. We will enhance our battlegroups in the eastern part of the alliance up to brigade-levels. We will transform the NATO response force and increase the number of our high readiness forces to well over 300,000," Stoltenberg pledged.
The NATO chief also announced boosting the alliance's "ability to reinforce in crisis and conflict," as well as "more pre-positioned equipment, and stockpiles of military supplies."
As the NATO chief elaborated, the alliance’s forward battlegroups will exercise together with home defense forces "to become familiar with local terrain, facilities, and our new pre-positioned stocks." There will be "more forward-deployed capabilities, like air defense, and strengthened command and control," he said.
"Together, this constitutes the biggest overhaul of our collective deterrence and defense since the Cold War," Stoltenberg stressed.
As the NATO chief specified, the military alliance will beef up its forward battlegroups from the battalion to the brigade level in the east stage by state, in accordance with the needs of each particular country where the military formations are deployed.
As Stoltenberg pointed out, after the start of Russia’s military operation in Ukraine, NATO actually doubled the size of its existing battlegroups in the eastern frontiers: Germany increased their presence in Lithuania, UK increased presence in Estonia, and Canada and other countries increased presence in Latvia. The number of battlegroups increased from four to eight, he said.
"At the Summit we will take decisions that will be transformative for our deterrence and defense, that will lead to the fundamental shift in the way we organize collective defense in NATO," Stoltenberg emphasized.