NATO battlegroups taking shape in Baltics, Poland

[Zarvan]

A British Army Warrior IFV is driven off a roll-on/roll-off vessel in Estonia on 22 March. Source: Crown Copyright

Deployments of troops and weaponry for NATO's four Enhanced Forward Presence (eFP) battlegroups in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland are picking up speed, with planned contributions from 17 allies.

The battlegroups are part of NATO's Readiness Action Plan, which is aimed at deterring Russian aggression.

The UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) announced on 22 March that the first 120 of 800 British soldiers had arrived in Estonia with armoured vehicles that included Challenger 2 tanks, Warrior infantry fighting vehicles (IFVs), and AS90 self-propelled howitzers.

On the same day, the French MoD said the first 50 of its soldiers had arrived in Estonia, VBCI IFVs were in the process of being deployed, and Leclerc tanks were being loaded for the journey.

France will send a total of 300 troops to the British-led eFP battlegroup, which will be stationed at Estonia's Tapa base.

The Dutch MoD announced on 23 March that it had deployed more than 100 soldiers to Lithuania to supplement the German, Dutch, Belgian, and Norwegian troops who deployed to the Rukla base earlier this year. Dutch CV90 IFVs were also seen arriving by ferry.

The German-led battlegroup in Lithuania will be the largest with 1,200 troops. Along with the Canadian-led battlegroup in Latvia, it is expected to be fully operational in June.

Hundreds of US and British troops are scheduled to depart Germany for Poland on 25 March, US Lieutenant Colonel Steven Gventer, the battlegroup's commander told journalists on 20 March. They will be joined by the Romanian 205th Air Defence Battalion and hosted by Poland's 15th Mechanised Brigade, headquartered in Orzysz.

The full 1,177-strong US-led Battlegroup Poland will be mission-ready by 1 April. "Our mission is to deploy as a combat-ready battalion; this is not for a cycle of training exercises," Lt Col Gventer said.

Asked if Battlegroup Poland could hope to protect the country's long eastern border, he said "this won't be a line of T-72s on the border that we are expecting, but we'll be lethal at whatever point of contact we have".

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