NATO, in accordance with its new defense plans, can deploy 300,000 soldiers in the first month of a potential attack on the bloc, while the total number of the alliance’s military personnel could reach 3.5 million people, Chair of the NATO Military Committee Adm. Rob Bauer said, Report informs via Sputnik.
"If we are talking about collective defense, you do not have the time to prepare for an attack if the attack happens. And it is not us planning the attack, it is the opponent planning the attack. If they attack, you have to be ready. Therefore, we need more soldiers at high readiness … We are talking, in NATO as a whole if Finland and Sweden have joined, of about 3.5 million soldiers in the alliance. So the 300,000 is the number … that we foresee at high readiness available for basically the first 30 days if it is necessary," Bauer told reporters at a press conference with Norwegian Chief of Defense Gen. Eirik Kristoffersen.
In July, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that the bloc approved new defense plans at the Vilnius summit under which NATO would have 300,000 soldiers at high readiness and member states would invest at least 2% of gross domestic product annually in defense.