8th February, 2018
Germany’s Bundeswehr is expected to host a new planning and command centre for the rapid deployment of troops and material transport as part of NATO’s expansion, a source said on Thursday.
The defence alliance members have accepted an offer in principle from German Defence Minister Ursula Leyen to set up the new centre in Germany, most likely in the region around Bonn and Cologne cities.
There are apparently no other contenders to host the senior command centre, which is expected to be announced officially during the upcoming meeting of NATO defence ministers From Feb. 14 – 15.
The Bundeswehr already has its armed forces headquarters in the Bonn-Cologne area.
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Another new senior command centre to secure the air and sea routes across the Atlantic between North America and Europe is expected to be set up in the United States.
NATO is expanding its command and armed forces structures in face of the perceived increasing military threat from Russia.
The military alliance had massively reduced those structures in recent decades because of reduced tensions after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the fall of the Iron Curtain and the end of the Cold War.
From a previous tally of dozens of senior command centres, NATO now has only seven according to its own information.
The number of personnel has also halved from more than 20,000 previously to less than 10,000 now.