At the Globsec international security conference in Braitslava on Tuesday, Hodges stated that NATO and its allies need to be serious about repelling a possible Russian attack.
Hodges acknowledged that NATO has made significant progress, including individual countries. "We are not even close to where we need to be if we are serious about defeating a Russian attack," he said. He pointed out that NATO became stronger when Finland joined, but the Alliance still cannot show the Kremlin that it can move quickly.
He gave the example of Germany's DB State Railways, which has enough freight cars to carry one and a half armored brigades at a time. "That's all we can do. One and a half brigades, and we need to be able to transport about 10 or 12 at a time," according to Hodges.
He stressed that NATO must now get serious about interoperability, munitions stockpiles, and air and missile defense.
"The Russians have demonstrated that they will use multi-million dollar precision weapons against residential buildings. So this is no longer just about protecting Gdańsk, Klaipeda or other airports and seaports. It's about protecting 500 million European citizens," the former commander said and concluded: "We are not prepared for this."
(jh)
Source: PAP
