Transport & logistics


Right: Nato has been fundamental to the security of Poland and the Baltics.


Opening page: Latvia joined Nato in 2004 to strengthen its overall national security.


Since they joined the alliance around the turn of the millennium, Nato has been fundamental to the security of Poland and the Baltics, from equipment to funding to training. Yet, if those early years of Atlanticist collaboration were lived in the warm embrace of Pax Americana, the alliance today is arguably on far wobblier ground. After four years of being undermined by President Trump, who among other things grumbled that his country was paying for the lion’s share of European defence, there are increasing questions about who should actually be in charge of the continent’s defence effort. With Russian aggression increasing east of the Vistula, these newest members of the Western alliance need Nato more than ever – even as they develop closer links with their fellow Europeans.


“Membership in the most powerful military alliance in the world has given Poland [...] security guarantees in the form of Article Five of the Washington Treaty.”


Colonel Witold Bartoszek $169m


Foreign military aid to Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania from the US in 2021.


ABC News 34


Leopards changing their spots They say the past is a foreign country. When he was born, in 1973, Colonel Witold Bartoszek really did live in one. Known as the Polish People’s Republic, his land was little more than a communist puppet. It may have had a nominally independent army, but its borders also hosted around 66,000 heavily armed Soviet houseguests. Anything Warsaw did, it had to first check with Moscow. How things have changed. Bartoszek’s country is now the democratic Republic of Poland, while the man himself is the acting chief of the logistics division in a sovereign military. And as far as Bartoszek


is concerned, Nato is central to it all. “Membership in the most powerful military alliance in the world,” he says, “has given Poland not only security guarantees in the form of Article Five of the Washington Treaty, but has also led to an increase in the position and prestige of our country on the international stage.” With Article Five at their backs – which states that an attack against one Nato member is an attack against all – it’s little wonder this is argument shadowed by Lieutenant General Leonids Kalniš, head of the Latvian armed forces. Even before his country joined Nato in 2004, Kalniš says Latvia was looking at how Western countries were developing their military capabilities. And since then, he continues, the alliance has proved “absolutely important” to the nation’s security. Look at how deep this collaboration goes and their enthusiasm makes sense. There are Leopards and L-ATVs, of course, but even more basic equipment comes from the west. In 2018, for instance, Latvia announced it was replacing its standard AK-4 rifle with the G36, made in Germany. Crucially, these new weapons are fitted with Nato-standard 5.56mm rounds. Neighbouring Lithuania, for its part, sources all of its handguns, and all but one of its eight models of sniper rifle, from Nato countries. At the other end of the spectrum, meanwhile, Eastern European armies are increasingly reliant on Nato for the most sophisticated military hardware. Two years ago, it was announced that a squadron of American MQ-9 Reaper drones would be stationed at the Mirosławiec air base in Polish Pomerania. Around the same time, their US benefactors supplied Bartoszek and his colleagues with a plethora of air defence systems – including state-of-the-art Patriot missiles – in a deal worth $4.75bn. And sometimes, adds Lukáš Dyka, you even see systems going the other way. As the academic at the Baltic Defence College notes, a trio


Defence & Security Systems International / www.defence-and-security.com


Polish Armed Forces


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