NATO’s ties to Finland and Sweden can help the United States with useful tactics for the Pacific, say naval experts
If Sweden and Finland succeed in joining NATO, their additions could provide the benefit of improving US strategies and tactics against a rival far away from Atlantic waters, according to analysts.
The Navy and Navy personnel conducting operations to deter China would be wise to take up some tips from their counterparts in the two aspirants to the transatlantic alliance, they say.
The Swedish and Finnish fleets excel when it comes to exploiting the geography of the Baltic Sea region by using small, difficult-to-capture, missile-armed surface patrol vessels and conventional submarines to mask their whereabouts, says James Holmes, chairman of the US Naval Strategy Program. College in Newport, RI.
Refined by decades of countering Russian aggression, their naval forces include skills in operating near islands or large land masses and interfering with non-military surface traffic to avoid detection, tracking and targeting.
Such a skill set would be “useful in expeditionary advanced base operations, the US Marine Corps concept for fighting in the western Pacific,” Holmes said, adding that the same capabilities would also be useful in strengthening Taiwan’s defenses.
“If you want to be small, as the US Navy and USMC are constantly talking about doing, why not ask those who are small and therefore skilled at taking advantage of such benefits?” in Holmes.
Sweden and Finland formally applied for membership of NATO in May, but Turkey objected, citing concerns about their perceived support for Kurdish groups that Ankara considers to be terrorist organizations. Earlier this month, Turkey threatened to delay the membership process by as much as a year.
On Tuesday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan would meet with Swedish and Finnish leaders to continue negotiations ahead of this week’s NATO summit in Madrid, Reuters reported on Sunday.
Lessons on topics such as how to use topography to avoid the detection of an attacker could be easier for US sailors and marines if Sweden and Finland were admitted to NATO, says Bryan Clark, director of the Hudson Institute’s Center for Defense Concepts and Technology.
Their fleets could also deploy ships with NATO attack groups, further increasing learning and integration opportunities, Clark said. Both countries are closely affiliated with the United States and NATO and often participate in exercises such as the US-led BALTOPS.
But their partner status means they are not part of the alliance’s command structure, which limits their ability to fully integrate, Clark said.
Holmes, Clark and other analysts also stress that the potential benefits of accepting the two NATO countries must be weighed against the additional commitments the alliance would shoulder, such as helping Finland defend the more than 800 km long border it shares with Russia.
“(Sweden and Finland) would need a lot of help from NATO and the United States to defend themselves if Russia really wanted to invade,” said Mark Cancian, senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
As a direct result of Russia’s unprovoked full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, both countries threw away decades of neutrality and sought to have their national defense under NATO’s collective security umbrella.
Russian President Vladimir Putin cited NATO enlargement in the former Moscow-dominated Eastern bloc as a supposed motivation to attack Ukraine, which for several years has expressed a desire for membership in the alliance.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Putin’s calculations had backfired, as Finland’s and Sweden’s accession would give more NATO to Russia’s threshold, not less.
Provided that Turkey’s objections are resolved, NATO and the United States have more to gain than lose if Sweden and Finland join the alliance, said retired CEO. James Foggo, who led the US Naval Forces Europe-Africa and the Allied Joint Forces Command Naples 2017-2020. .
Recognizing them would make NATO more resilient, give it more capability and provide more security, said Foggo, who is now dean of the Center for Maritime Strategy at the Navy League. And regardless of the alliance status, if Russia invaded Finland, the conflict would probably soon spill over into a NATO country, which requires intervention, he said.
“So why not extend the frontier further along the border to a sovereign nation that is friendly to the West, a good ally and a good partner, and frankly an exceptional fighting force?” in Foggo.