Hollow NATO is a Shadow of the Past

I know NATO very well. My first decade in the British Army was spent patrolling the Northern Flank in a light tank (Scorpion) and manoeuvering around the Central Front in a tank regiment (Chieftain and Challenger). The annual operational readiness tests were taken very seriously with all 60 tanks in the regiment ready to drive to their war positions at the drop of an Active Edge hat. The complex reinforcement in Germany exercises were impressive war-rehearsals with the one in 1984 involving 131,565 British personnel – more than twice the size of the current British Army.

That immense strength was a potent deterrent to Moscow and acted as a significant tripwire before the battlefield nuclear weapons of 50 Missile Regiment were to be used. If you wish to read more on this, The National army Museum has put together an excellent summary of the British Army and NATO at that time: https://www.nam.ac.uk/explore/nato-and-british-army

Our capability of 1980s proved itself in the Falklands and Gulf Wars and was the foundation for NATO’s first military operation after the Cold War. I was in Bosnia for Operation Deliberate Force in 1995 and also for Operation Joint Forge seven years later. I also deployed to NATO operations in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya after 9/11 and had to develop numerous concepts for NATO headquarters, such as the Over The Horizon Force for the Balkans in 2003.

One has to remember that NATO is a political organisation as well as a military alliance. However, it is tragic for those of us who worked for a highly capable military organisation to see what it has become. Having visited Estonia recently and spoken to several Royal Engineers, Medics and Combat soldiers who have returned from their deployments, it is clear that we are being mis-informed about the deterrence capability on the ground. The British Army (along with most of the other NATO armies) has been completely hollowed-out, so Its no wonder, the Government has agreed this week to raise the Defence Budget by a small amount.

Battle Group Training In Canada In 1982