The “coalition of the willing” is trying to rope NATO into its scheme for a “reassurance force” for Ukraine. The Financial Times, citing five unnamed officials briefed on the planning, reported that NATO’s command and control structure could be employed to support the European deployment. NATO’s involvement is also seen by supporters of the reassurance force as a way to indirectly involve the U.S. in the endeavor, and secure Washington’s tacit support, says the FT. “If we are going to deploy assets from dozens of countries [to Ukraine], then NATO is really the only [command and control] option that we can use,” said one of the officials.
In a paper published earlier this week, Britain’s International Institute for Strategic Studies concluded that the U.K., France, and their partners would be able to muster and sustain a small or medium-sized force of between 10,000 and 25,000 men, together with air power and naval support. But, FT says, it would be weaker and more vulnerable without U.S. intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR). “Without U.S. ISR it would be at much greater risk and its ability to detect threats would go down,” said Ben Barry, senior fellow for land warfare at IISS.
