NATO officer says allies should urgently rethink defence, put together for ‘new enemy’ | EUROtoday

NATO international locations urgently have to rethink how they guarantee their defence, however many have but to totally grasp the size of the problem, significantly in relation to boosting weapons manufacturing, a prime NATO officer mentioned on Wednesday.

Since Russian President Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Moscow has put its economic system on a conflict footing and boosted its weapons manufacturing.

“Russia has changed,” Pierre Vandier, NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander Transformation, informed a safety and defence discussion board in Paris.

“We need to be prepared for a new enemy — if we don’t, we will experience what the Gulf experienced,” he mentioned, referring to Iran’s retaliatory assaults on the Gulf nations after the United States and Israel attacked the Islamic republic on February 28.

Vandier mentioned that NATO ought to adapt to provide extra weapons quicker, urging allies to make “the right choices”.

“It’s not a question of money. It’s a question of speed,” he mentioned in English.

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He pressured the necessity for NATO to answer challenges resembling Russia and Iran mass-producing drones, whose capacities have been quickly evolving.

“It’s a moment of truth for all of us,” Vandier mentioned.

“The question for us is not to do more of the same, it is to see what we need to do to maintain our security.”

He mentioned NATO international locations have been “not organised” for mass manufacturing of weapons, in contrast to their adversaries.

He mentioned the army bloc was additionally too sluggish, with allies taking between two and three years to “define what we need”.

Fabien Mandon, France’s chief of the defence workers, has mentioned the nation should be prepared within the subsequent three or 4 years for a conflict with Russia.

The French Institute of International Relations, a prime suppose tank, warned in November that Europe may wrestle to rapidly produce sufficient weapons in case of a direct confrontation with Russia.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)