Pershing II-missile in an unidentified woodlands area before INF(1)-contract.
Trump removes U.S troops from Germany(2)
When the U.S strategic plans created in the 1950s there were two Germany East Germany and West Germany. East Germany was a member of the Warsaw treaty and West Germany was a member of NATO. In Europe people afraid of the new rise of Nazism, and that's why West Germany wanted to tie in the security system of the NATO, which was lead by the western allied nations. Every strategy plans the fight between the Soviet Union and the USA or rather saying NATO and the Warsaw pact happened in the area of Germany.
And the purpose of the conventional NATO troops was to protect the airfields, where new mobile missile systems can be placed. Also, the aircraft, what sent to attack against the tanks of attackers would use those airfields. The same way the Soviet Union wanted to set it's highly mobile weapon systems to East Germany and the purpose of its forces in that area was to protect also airfields, where those missiles would be transported. So the way to think about the use of the German area was similar in both sides of the iron curtain.
The German area offered a good place to install airborne early warning radars and reconnaissance platforms to that area, where they could observe the Soviet naval and other vehicle cooperation in the Baltic area, and the Soviet Union wanted also to observe the communication signals of the NATO air force. So the tactics were that when the enemy attack, the counterstrike would be done by using aircraft. Germany was also an excellent area when the recon aircraft could land if there were some kind of technical problems.
The similar surveillance operations are done in northern Norway, where the U-2 and SR-71 spy planes have used the Alta airbase in their long-range recon operations deep inside the Soviet airspace. Those flights started from Turkey or Pakistan, and then the recon planes flew across the Soviet Union and took high-resolution images of the Soviet rocket sites and airfields. Those missions officially ended, when the high-resolution KH (Key Hole) satellites were accomplished. There is written some books about those missions and one of the best is the book named "Operation overflight, which was written by Francis "Gary" Powers"(3), the U-2 pilot who was shot down over the Soviet Union on May 1, 1960.
And in 1991, the Soviet Union collapsed. Many of the ex-Warsaw pact countries joined NATO and one of them was Poland along with Baltic Nations. Also, Sweden and Finland are starting stronger cooperation between NATO, which means that the mean of the position in Germany has been turned. And of course, new NATO members like Poland wants the safety guarantees. Another thing is that when Poland and Baltic states joined NATO that meant that the fixed intelligence systems, what mission is to capture the radar and communication signals from the Russian military should transport to Baltic and Poland.
If we are thinking about Estonia or Southern Finland they could be the perfect place to send small-size drones to recon missions against the places like Admiralty shipyards at Saint Petersburg. The thing is that all U.S NATO allies want that NATO would also be with them. And that thing is the problem.
(1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intermediate-Range_Nuclear_Forces_Treaty
(2) https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/05/world/europe/trump-troops-europe-nato-germany.html
(3) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Gary_Powers
Image: https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/nukevault/ebb301/img02.jpg
Comments
Post a Comment