October 30, 2024: European NATO nations are responding to the Russian aggression in Ukraine by upgrading their armed forces. Before 2022 NATO believed Russia was no longer a threat. The Cold War between NATO and Russia lasted from 1947 to 1991, when the Soviet Union collapsed. The Russian Federation emerged from the collapse of the Soviet Union and was initially seen as even less of a threat than the Soviet Union ever was. The new Russia surprised everyone in 2014 by seizing Crimea and portions of two other provinces from Ukraine. Most nations, and the UN, condemned this Russian action. That had no effect because in early 2022 Russia invaded Ukraine with the intention of absorbing back into Russia as part of a plan to rebuild the pre-1991 Russian empire.

All this alarmed NATO nations, which were preparing to accept Ukraine as a member. The U.S. and European NATO nations immediately began shipping military and economic aid to Ukraine. By 2024, the war was winding down with Russia as the loser. Despite that Russian leader Vladimir Putin vowed to continue the fight indefinitely.

These event prompted most European NATO nations to upgrade their armed forces. The Russians had never attacked Europe during the Cold War and now it had started the first European conflict since World War II ended in 1945. There had been some uprisings in Russian dominated East European nations between the 1950s and 80s. These incidents were quickly suppressed but they kept happening and by the late 1980s Russia realized this opposition to their domination of East Europe was not going to end. This led to the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 and a false peace. Current Russian leader Putin has been in power since 1999 and openly sought to restore the Russian empire. The only NATO members that took this threat seriously were the ones, like Poland and the Baltic States, that bordered Russia or Ukraine.

Faced with a new and unexpected reality, NATO nations their combat brigades will increase above 131. That will result in a ground force of 700,000 troops, which is 240,000 more than European NATO nations have now. The increased brigades will operate under the command of 38 division headquarters, up from 24. The largest increase is for air defense systems that will stop Russian aircraft and missiles. These defensive systems will grow from the current 293 to about 1,500. There will also be increases in the number of combat and transport helicopters as well as transports and fixed wing combat aircraft. Another critical item is stockpiles of munitions and weapons to replace those lost in combat. These items will be stored in multiple locations in all NATO nations.

European nations have had to revive the ability to manufacture munitions and weapons locally. This will take several years, as well as all the other expansion items. Russia is now seen as a perpetual threat, even after the heavy losses it has suffered in Ukraine.