SACEUR Grynkewich Sets Out NATO's Theory of Victory in Warsaw — Block, Blunt, Break, and No Strategic Defeat of the Adversary Sought

Block fixes the attacking formations and denies "the seizure of Alliance territory"; blunt stops the advance; break goes behind it: "Enemy formations will be starved of replenishment. Enemy commanders will be unable to control their forces." The alliance, he said, "should take comfort in our ability to deliver mass effects and the implicit warning that we could match any enemy move up the escalation ladder". The concept was finalised in classified form about three months ago, Stars and Stripes reported; Bloomberg and Ansa had unclassified versions the week before. On sabotage and hybrid attacks he asked allies to tell Moscow "where our red lines are", without stating one. Maria Zakharova, the Russian foreign ministry's spokeswoman, called it "a madhouse on tour".

Break is a long-range-fires promise, and the American ground-launched means it could have drawn on are gone or late. A campaign against whatever supports, sustains or controls a force is fought at depth. In May the Pentagon cancelled the long-range fires battalion that was to deploy to Germany; Berlin's own first Tomahawks are put at 2031 at the earliest; and the June force-sourcing round cut the US fighters available to NATO by a third. What is left for depth is largely European, led by the twelve-nation Deep Precision Strike initiative launched in July. Signal No. 165 asked who carries break; the test is a dated fielding of a European ground-launched system with that reach before the 2031 Tomahawk.