NATO wants to shield its oriental flank in front of the threat of the Kremlin. After Russian drones in Poland – which were demolished by combat aircraft of several members of the Alliance – the military organization will launch a significant reinforcement in Eastern Europe. The new mission, which they have called “Centinela Este” and in which Spain will participate, will begin this Friday night and include both new outstanding fighters in the area and specific elements to combat the use of drones.
Spain will contribute air media to the mission, as announced by X this Friday the president of the Government, Pedro Sánchez. “These media will be added to those we already have in Latvia, Lithuania and other countries and will be there all the time,” he explained. “Putin is not going to intimidate us.”
Poland, who had demanded from NATO new measures and had warned that Kremlin’s action was destined to analyze the response of the Alliance and its military capabilities, has already been satisfied with the announced deployment.
“It is imprudent and unacceptable. We cannot have Russian drones entering,” NATO general, Mark Rutte general. “The Alliance will continue to defend every centimeter of its territory,” he added during an appearance in Brussels next to the supreme military command for Europe, the American Alexus Grynkewich. Before, at their meeting at the headquarters of the Alliance with the representatives of the 32 allied countries, both have profiled the new strategy.
Spain will participate with aerial media in the new security device that NATO will deploy on the east flank of Europe.
These media will be added to those we already have in Latvia, Lithuania and other countries and will be there all the time it is needed.
Putin is not going to …
– Pedro Sánchez (@sánchezCastejon)
The reinforcement will not only be aerial, but also terrestrial. The “Sentinela East” mission (there is already a “Baltic Sentinel”, for example) will include the forces already stationed in the region, one of the most protected and where several NATO countries have forces. And will also add new capabilities.
Several countries of the Alliance, including France and Germany, have already pledged to contribute fighters and aerial frigates for a new deployment that comes after the most serious incident between NATO and Russia in decades. Paris will add three rafale, as Emmanuel Macron announced on Thursday. Berlin will put four Eurofighters. And the Danish government, two F-16. The United Kingdom has also committed units for this reinforcement, but without specifying how many and which ones. All of them will be added to the forces already present in the region, where thousands of soldiers from alliance countries are betting.
The mission seeks to counteract the threats of Russian missiles and drones, and arrives in full controversy due to the use of hunting aircraft – very expensive – against a swarm of much cheaper drones. “In addition to the most traditional military capabilities, this effort will also include elements designed to address the specific challenges associated with the use of drones,” said Rutte.
Change of mentality
The idea is not only to increase capabilities in the area, as Grynkewich explained, but to carry out a real change of mentality to shield the area completely. Also with respect to drones, unmanned aircraft that – as Russia’s war against Ukraine is demonstrating – are increasingly used for military purposes. In fact, the EU aspires to launch a “drone wall” in front of the threat of Vladimir Putin.
“We are all vulnerable to the range that these drones can fly the routes that they can take,” said Grynkewich. “So the eastern flank gives us a first line of defense.”
Russian threat in Tallin and Madrid
NATO awaits the report on the incursion of drones in Poland, which unleashed an unprecedented response from the alliance: for the first time airplanes from allied countries knocked down “potential threats” in the allied space. Intentional or not, the alliance underlines the seriousness of the incursion of those Kremlin aircraft.
“While this was the largest concentration of NATO airspace violations, what happened on Wednesday was not an isolated incident,” Routte insisted. “Russia’s recklessness in the air along our eastern flank is increasingly frequent. We have seen drones violate our airspace in Romania, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Whether intentional or not, it is dangerous.”
When the debate on financing for defense recessed, and the feeling towards the war in Ukraine and the Russian threat divides the citizenship of the members of the Alliance – it is perceived more in the closest to Russia -, the general secretary of the military organization has launched that all the countries of the alliance, whatever their geographical location, are threatened.
“It gives the impression that in London or in Madrid it is more certain than in Tallin, but that is not true,” said NATO general secretary. “The last Russian drones were descended five times the speed of sound. And it takes only five or ten more minutes to reach Madrid or London of what they take to reach Tallin or Vilnius.”
