U.S. deploys advanced anti-aircraft missiles in Baltics for first time

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Reuters

Mon Jul 10, 2017 | 6:07pm BST

The United States deployed a battery of Patriot long-range anti-aircraft missiles in Lithuania to be used in NATO wargames from Tuesday - the first time the advanced defence system has been brought to the Baltics where Russia has air superiority.

The Patriot battery was brought to the Siauliai military airbase on Monday, ahead of the Tobruk Legacy exercise, and will be withdrawn when the exercise ends on July 22, a Lithuanian defence ministry spokeswoman told Reuters.

The NATO wargames take place ahead of the large-scale Zapad 2017 exercise by Russia and Belarus which NATO officials believe could bring more than 100,000 troops to the borders of Poland and the three Baltic NATO allies - the biggest such Russian manoeuvres since 2013.

Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia possess only short-range anti-aircraft missiles, leaving the skies largely unprotected in the event of hostilities and have expressed concern about their air defence weakness following Russia's annexation of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014.


Read more: http://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-usa-baltics-patriot-idUKKBN19V286?rpc=401&

[Voltaire2]

1. well that is really stupid.

[EX500rider]

2. Maybe Russia should have thought this through...

"Russia deploys nuclear-capable missiles in Kaliningrad

Russia has deployed nuclear-capable Iskander missiles in its western-most region, Kaliningrad, which borders on Nato members Poland and Lithuania.
Poland said the development was of the "highest concern", adding it was monitoring the situation."

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-37597075

[Voltaire2]

3. We will have no choice but to walk away from a confrontation on Russia's borders.

Well, we do have a choice, we can go nuclear. Not really a choice.

[EX500rider]

4. Russia isn't what she used to be..

"In 1989, the Red Army had almost a half-million troops and 27 maneuver divisions (plus enormous quantities of artillery and other units) on the territory of its three main allies. Today, it has a total of seven divisions in its entire Western Military District, all of which are based on its own territory. Indeed, the entire Russian army today boasts about 25 divisions, fewer than it had forward deployed in its Eastern European allies during the waning days of the Cold War.

Today, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Germany alone field more divisions than Russia has in its Western Military District. These countries are backstopped by the rest of NATO, including, of course, the United States. And this raw count doesn’t take into account the general deterioration of Russian forces since 1991, a quarter-century that saw little equipment modernization. By the late 1980s, NATO already enjoyed a significant qualitative advantage over the Warsaw Pact, and that edge has only increased since then."

https://www.usnews.com/opinion/blogs/world-report/2014/04/09/natos-military-capabilities-in-europe-should-deter-russian-aggression

[Voltaire2]

6. Well good luck with that war.

[LanternWaste]

9. You seem to be reading one of many possible potentials as the only actual potential.

You seem to be reading one of many possible potentials as the only actual potential. Magic Eight Balls and prophets are cheaper than bumper-stickers these days, regardless of luck.

[EX500rider]

10. Sounds like the Russians are the ones that would need good luck.

[Igel]

5. And yet many will struggle with the cog. diss.

After all, (1) they've been deployed there for centuries, justifying Soviet and later Russian aggression; (2) they don't work and everybody knows they're useless; (3) there's no reason to fear the Russians, all the "we were part of an empire and horribly colonized" has to meaning in the context of the CP USA-supported USSR, which was in no way an "evil empire."

Bringing us back to the subject line.

Odd, though, bringing something like that, which obviously doesn't work yet worked in Israel, so close to what was never part of an evil empire yet killed millions over ideology and oppressed many millions more. It's not by coincidence that the declare of the GULags, reinstituted by the glorious humanitarian Lenin for strictly pecuniary reasons, was accompanied by a decline in worker productivity.)

Kstati, ja sovershenno p'jan. Ne vodkoj, a dzhinom. Tak ja ne russkij, nasmotrja na vybor jazyka. Eto prosto navykom javljaetsja--p'janstvo, djla menya, bolee russkaja cherta, chem amerikanskaja. Nado zamechat', Russkaja transkripcija dovol'no staraja slavistskaja, Jakobskon'skaja, tak menja vyuchilii. A esli znakom s familiei egi i ego naslediem v akademii, znachit, ty znaesh' ja nikak ne vysoko chtu Putina i ego chad.)

[GulfCoast66]

7. So we should refuse to uphold our NATO

Obligations?

This is not Iraq or Syria. This is our 70 year old commitment to defend Democratic Western Europe from Russia.

I am actually shocked Trump is letting it happen the way he loves Putin.

He may not even know.

[eleny]

8. My dad was born just west of there in Kursenai

But that was a long time ago. Just sayin'.