By: Christopher Maffei
—A tribute to Tom Clancy
Rockland watched a pair of antitank missiles reach out into the Russian lines. One miss, one kill. More smoke came in from both sides as the NATO troops fell back another five hundred meters. The village they were defending was now in sight. The sergeant had counted a total of five kills to his tank. He hadn’t been hit yet, but that wouldn’t last. The friendly artillery was really in the fight now. The Russian infantry was down to half the strength he’d first seen, and their tracked vehicles were laying back, trying to engage the NATO positions with their own missiles. Things looked to be going reasonably well when the third regiment appeared.
Sixty-six tanks came over the hill in front of him. An A-10 swept across the line and killed a pair, then was blotted out of the sky by a SAM. The burning wreckage fell three hundred yards in front of him.
“Target tank, one o’clock. Shoot!” The Abrams rocked backward with yet another shot. “Hit.”
“Warning, warning,” called the troop commander. “Enemy helos approaching from the north.”
Twelve Mi-24 Hinds arrived late, but they made up for it by killing a pair of NATO tanks in less than a minute. German F-4’s speeding across the treetops, engaged the 24s with air-to-air missiles and cannon in a wild melee that suddenly included surface-to-air missiles. The sky was crisscrossed with smoke trails, and suddenly there were no aircraft in view. Within less than 15 seconds, 165 million in military hardware was strewn across the combat zone.
“It’s bogging down!!” Petrov screamed. He’d just learned one important lesson: attack helicopters cannot hope to survive in the face of enemy fighters. Just when he thought the Mi-24s would make a decisive difference, they’d been forced away by the appearance of the German fighters. Artillery support was slacking off. The NATO gunners were counterbatterying the Soviet guns expertly, helped by ground-attack fighters. He had to get more front-line air support.
As his advance was temporarily blocked, Alekseyev watched a thunderbolt come in low, dropping cluster munitions on his tank formation. Two more Soviet tanks were stopped, but the aircraft caught a flame, disintegrated, and the pilot ejected before the thunderbolt crashed into a fireball one hundred meters from an Abrams crew fighting for their lives
The pilot and parachute fell softly down into Soviet hands.
Of course, I rewrote Clancy’s work. But, this is Tom Clancy’s vision of a combined arms Battlefield in the early 1980s. And it still holds up to this day. What does not hold up—is NATO. In the early 1980s, NATO had a permanent Garrison of 250,000 troops in Europe and could immediately reinforce with 200,000 more from the United States. As of now, NATO would be lucky if it could scrape together 20,000 fighting Infantry to meet the Russians on their own ground.
In contrast, the Russian Federation has reformed both the Russian 1st Guards Tank Army as well as the 20th Guards Combined Arms Army. As you know, these are cold war Soviet formations that were used to fight NATO in the 1980s. Now, they are back—and ready to fight.
And “cancel culture and name calling” are not going to drive them back.
Only a cohesive NATO force that has been communicating and training together for years will have even the slightest chance. Most importantly, NATO needs at least 3,000 Abrams and 50,000 infantry on the European field right (NOW). Just for defense. And it’s not going to happen.
As it stands, if NATO were to engage the 1st Guards Tank and the 20th Guards armored divisions– the NATO defeat would be on the order of the French in 1941. You would have NATO troops (including Americans) wandering the combat zone asking who to surrender to.
I have heard congress touting US airpower will make the difference. Please let’s dispel this myth right now– this is not Afghanistan or Iraq. Once a NATO pilot takes off on the first mission to (attempt) to gain air superiority. This pilot will need to get through the most advanced electronic warfare in the world. After being blind with no communication, these pilots will need to fight through six batteries of S-400s, as well as an unlimited supply of first-generation SAM-7s, and an endless number of heavy weapons– a menace to even the fastest jets.
If that is not bad enough we can’t forget random shots from the Russian Infantry. One lucky shot can bring down a 50-million-dollar aircraft in flames. And to cap the day off for the brave men and women who have just experienced a 60% attritional rate in their wing.
Russian special weapons battalions will be waiting for them on their way back shouldering the new (SA-25) In addition to everything else I just described. Believe me, you won’t find a MiG in the sky.
Make no mistake, NATO aircraft losses will be HEAVY.
This is to the Jackals in the District of Columbia– if you don’t get serious and place the US economy on a war footing, Institute a draft and shift more resources to defense to redress the balance of power. The decoupling of world Reserve currency status will be the least of your problems. And we all know what that means―
No more Harvard-Swiss ski trips for the kids.
Anyway, what I have just described is never going to happen, NATO is in defacto defeat. At the end of the day, the end of NATO is better for the American people and it’s better for the world. Congress will be forced to focus on the American people, focus on their welfare, and the welfare of the nation.
At this point, anything The Establishment touches is poisoned.
―Chris