Sentry staff
Regardless of the outcome of the war in Ukraine, Russia will remain a persistent threat to NATO and global peace and security, according to U.S. Army Gen. Christopher Cavoli, Commander of United States European Command and supreme allied commander Europe.
“No matter how it works out after the war in Ukraine is concluded, I believe Russia will pose a long-term threat to the Alliance, we will have a big Russia problem for years to come,” Gen. Cavoli said at an Atlantic Council event in May 2024, according to Air & Space Forces magazine. NATO forces are coalescing to face the evolving threat, he added.
The Kremlin has suffered more than 350,000 casualties since its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, according to U.S. Defense Department estimates, and more than two dozen Russian naval vessels have been destroyed or damaged during the past two years. Despite such setbacks, Russia has advanced in other areas, which is a point of concern for NATO. Gen. Cavoli also noted that Russia’s army presence in Ukraine is larger now than when the war began.
“Russia shows no signs of stopping, nor does Russia intend to stop with Ukraine,” Gen. Cavoli told U.S. lawmakers during testimony before the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee earlier in 2024. “Russia presents to us a chronic threat,” he said. The Kremlin has announced plans to expand its troop size and has increased industrial production and manpower intake to reach its goals, Gen. Cavoli said.
As the threat evolved in 2024, NATO’s forces coalesced to launch their most extensive military exercise since the Cold War. The six-month Steadfast Defender exercise featured F-35s, F-15s and unmanned aerial vehicles operating across 13 countries. Gen. Cavoli called the display, which included 90,000 troops representing every NATO country, a “great and growing success story” for the Alliance.
“I’m very confident about our ability to wage high-end warfare,” Gen. Cavoli said, according to the magazine. “We are rapidly moving into fourth-generation-plus and fifth-generation, exclusively across the Alliance. By 2030, there are going to be more than 600 F-35s in the Alliance in Europe.”
The U.S. and NATO are also intensifying their state of readiness in other areas, focusing on improving Integrated Air and Missile Defense, simulated combat, electronic warfare and coordination with ground forces.
“As we continue to implement our strategy through OAIs [operations, activities and investments], our greatest strategic opportunity lies in the Alliance’s transformation of its collective defense,” Gen. Cavoli told U.S. lawmakers. “This transformation is not just about responding to current threats. It is a wholesale transformation of the operational forces and procedures of the Alliance and represents a proactive step toward a future where collective defense of the Euro-Atlantic is more integrated, resilient, adaptable and resilient to emerging challenges.”