Russian military could defeat NATO in hours: US official

Russian military forces could defeat ill-prepared NATO troops in a matter of hours as the US-led military alliance is not ready to take on Moscow in a war, a senior US military official has admitted.

Michael Carpenter, US deputy assistant secretary of defense for Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia, made the comments this week while speaking before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, discussing the growing tensions between Russia and the US over the Western military buildup on Russia’s borders, the Daily Mail reported Friday.

Carpenter told the panel that it would take merely 60 hours for NATO forces to get overtaken by Russian armed forces in case a military confrontation breaks out.

This echoes the conclusion drawn by the American military think tank, RAND Corporation, which predicted 4 months ago that NATO and US forces would be defeated by Russia in less than three days should there be a war in the Baltic region.

When Senator Cory Gardner from Colorado asked Carpenter (pictured above) about the RAND report, he said that the think tank, comprised of American military officers and civilian officials, made a correct projection.

However, he noted that Washington was preparing to beef up NATO pileup on its Eastern frontier with Russia in order to set up a more even playing field.

“'I’m confident by the end of 2017, when we have an additional armored brigade combat team worth of force posture on the eastern flank of the alliance, that we will be,” Carpenter said. 

US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter has said earlier this year that the Pentagon aims to increase spending on Eastern Europe operations from about $800 million this year to $3.4 billion in 2017.

Carpenter’s acknowledgement comes amid NATO’s massive “Saber Strike 16” military exercise in the Baltic States—Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.

Around 10,000 troops from many NATO countries and some other non-member nations are performing military operations in the drill which started on May 30 and will end on June 22.

Russia does not look favorably upon the increased presence of NATO troops close to its borders and has pledged to respond accordingly to any threats posed by the alliance.

Russia’s Ambassador to NATO Alexander Grushko said last week that NATO’s plan for more deployments in Poland and the Baltic states “changes the regional situation in the sphere of security qualitatively.”

Such a move, he said, will “surely require not only a political response but also the appropriate military precautions."

NATO has stepped up its military build-up near Russia’s borders since it suspended all ties with Moscow in April 2014 after the Black Sea Crimean Peninsula re-integrated into the Russian Federation following a referendum.

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