NATO Can Take Kaliningrad Down Faster Than Ever, US General Donahue Says

The US Army and NATO allies have launched a new defense initiative called the "Eastern Flank Deterrence Line." The plan aims to enhance NATO’s ground-based defense capabilities and promote military-industrial interoperability across the alliance, US Army Europe and Africa Commander Gen. Christopher Donahue said at the Association of the US Army’s inaugural LandEuro conference in Wiesbaden, Germany on July 17.

The goal of the initiative is to counter Russian threats and improve global deterrence, with a particular focus on developing standardized, data-driven systems, common launchers, and cloud-based coordination. According to Donahue, NATO’s first efforts will concentrate on the Baltic states, DefenseNews reports.

“We know what we have to develop and the use case that we’re using is you have to [deter] from the ground,” he said.

“The land domain is not becoming less important, it’s becoming more important. You can now take down [anti-access, aerial-denial] A2AD bubbles from the ground. You can now take over sea from the ground. All of those things we are watching happen in Ukraine,” General claimed.

For instance, Donahue pointed out that Kaliningrad, Russia, is approximately 47 miles wide and surrounded by NATO on all sides. NATO and the US Army now have the capability to “take that down from the ground in a timeframe that is unheard of and faster than we’ve ever been able to do,” Donahue said.

“We’ve already planned that and we’ve already developed it. The mass and momentum problem that Russia poses to us … we’ve developed the capability to make sure that we can stop that mass and momentum problem," Donahue said.

This deterrence plan also includes systems to share data. NATO has already procured such systems, with Donahue referring to Palantir’s Maven Smart System, a platform that uses artificial intelligence to rapidly analyze large datasets and assist military commanders in making timely decisions.

Read more

Category

World

Who is Senator Lindsey Graham? The GOP Hawk Leading US Support for Ukraine

Jul 17, 2025 20:14

“We already know exactly what we have to do with cloud and we know exactly the type of actual unmanned systems, brigades, everything else that we need for that,” Donahue stated.

A key element of the plan is creating interoperability between NATO partners. The Army is seeking a common launcher that can serve both offensive and defensive purposes and a fire control system that can be used by any nation, DefenseNews reports.

Donahue emphasized that the Army is also looking for systems to be “optionally manned,” meaning they could be operated with or without personnel, and the flexibility to work with munitions from any country.

“We want it to be one system, optionally manned, where we’ll be able to take munitions from any country and shoot through them,” he said.

Earlier, it was reported that Russia had launched massive Baltic sea military drills with 20+ warships and thousands of troops.

Fundraiser For Peaceful Nights

$1,500,000 towards 10 Ukrainian AI-Controlled Turrets.

Donate