NATO has no railway tracks to Russia in event of ground war

By Inessa S On Apr 30, 2018

Russia has a significant advantage over NATO in Eastern Europe, according to the authors of the report of the US Military Academy at West Point. The existing railroad tracks in the Baltic States will not allow the military bloc to transfer troops and equipment as quickly as Russia can do, they note.

Researchers from the Institute of Contemporary War, which is part of the Military Academy, note that the width of the railway gauge in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia differs from the European one because of the standards adopted in the USSR. In their opinion, this gives Russia a significant advantage in the event of possible hostilities.

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“This incompatibility means that trains carrying military equipment and ammunition from large NATO bases in Germany or Poland will have to move the cargo to trains adapted to the Russian track or deliver it to the destination by road,” the report says. At the same time, both options involve significant time costs, the use of special equipment and the experience of conducting such operations, which NATO soldiers do not possess.

Russia, unlike the Western powers, is mobile because of the railway standards in all countries of the former Soviet Union as a strategic advantage, experts say.