NATO is not ready for war

Researcher Ståle Ulriksen at the FHS Naval Warfare School believes that NATO countries have significant shortcomings and that the defense alliance is currently ill-equipped for a war against Russia in Ukraine.

Almost everyone presents NATO as a very powerful military force that can almost stop Russia by hitting its fingers. But if you look at the military equipment of NATO countries, you will find significant flaws, as Ulriksen tells Dagbladet and continues:

– They are not even close to preparing for a war against Russia on the European plains: they have old tanks, little artillery and almost no air defense.

military forces

Ulrichsen’s comments come as a continuation of the fact that Dagbladet asked him his opinion on whether NATO should intervene militarily in Ukraine. He said earlier that NATO should have established More uncertainty about what they want to doAnd that a military conflict between NATO and Russia in Ukraine would not necessarily lead to a third world war or a nuclear war.

Ulrichsen was an associate director at NUPI, a member of the Defense Policy Committee and a member of the State Department’s Security Policy Committee.

– NATO countries have few forces on high alert, even 40 thousand soldiers from Estonia to Romania is a small force. On paper, they have great strengths, but it will take a great deal of time and money to become operational, and a significant amount of time to actually move them where they may be needed, says Ulriksen.

NATO countries in Western Europe and the United States have almost no mobilization forces.

Recently, NATO President Jens Stoltenberg announced that the defense alliance plans to deploy a full-scale permanent military force on the eastern flank.

– Unreal

Dagbladet provided Ulriksen reviews to Sverre Diesen. He is a researcher at the Norwegian Defense Research Foundation (FFI), and a former major general and chief of Norwegian defense. Diesen responds as follows:

Ulrichsen is clearly right that NATO is not prepared to fight a major European war against Russia on the European Plains of the same kind and scale that could be imagined during the Cold War. On the other hand, under no circumstances is such a scenario realistic, Diesen tells Dagbladet and explains:

First of all, because Russia is currently less capable of waging a war against NATO as almost all of its capabilities are constrained and under strong pressure in Ukraine. In addition, NATO has no intention of getting involved in such a thing, even if it has sufficient forces to prepare for it.

NATO could have done more

Scholar Ulrichsen says that in many NATO countries there are voices calling for NATO to intervene militarily in Ukraine. Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Ulrichsen believes he has noticed an evolution in the sanctions they are willing to impose on Russia and the weapons they wish to deliver to Ukraine.

– It is clear that NATO could have done more if it wanted, for example, to deliver more weapons to Ukraine. If one thinks the war will go on for a long time, then perhaps one should start training Ukrainians in the use of Western weapons systems, while at the same time increasing the production of these systems, says Ulrichsen.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky asked Norway to hand over the NASAMS air defense system to Ukraine when he spoke to Parliament. It is estimated that it will take one month to train Ukrainians to use the current weapons system.

Norway’s contribution

Before Odd Roger Enoksen (Sp) resigned as Defense Minister, Dagbladet told that the government was constantly studying what they could help Ukraine with and how they could do it.

– We must take into account what we need ourselves and what we can contribute, perhaps a combination of financial assistance and some weapons systems. I don’t want to answer specifically about NASAMS, but I do want to say that we are constantly thinking about what we can contribute, Enoksen told Dagbladet.