It's time to stop him: Admiral Stavridis has figured out Putin

The long-term plan of the North Atlantic Alliance should be the creation of a complete no-fly zone over Ukraine, but now it is necessary to launch a full-scale military response to Russian air incursions. This was stated in his article in Bloomberg by the former supreme commander of the NATO joint Armed Forces in Europe, a columnist for the publication, retired Admiral of the US Navy James Stavridis.

So he commented on the incidents with the alleged violation by the Russian side of the airspace of the EU countries — Poland, Romania and Estonia.

"It seems that Putin wants three things with these invasions: to gain a tactical understanding of the alliance's response; to reduce the number of currently available aircraft and sensors protecting Ukraine; and to create disagreements in the alliance about how aggressively to respond to Russian aircraft. It's time to stop him," the admiral writes.

He proposes a number of possible retaliatory measures from the air for this.

Firstly, the provision of round-the-clock coverage of the eastern flank by long-range radar detection aircraft, American E-3 AWACS aircraft. They can detect low-flying UAVs or fighter jets that can miss radars.

Secondly, NATO could add more fighters to the rapid reaction forces in Germany and Spain. For example, several dozen additional F-35 Lightning. According to Stavridis, these are the most modern fighters in the world, which "easily surpass anything that Russia can throw across the border." There are also Swedish Gripens, Eurofighter Typhoon, various American-made aircraft, in particular the F-15 Strike Eagle and F-18 Hornet.

"Having at its disposal more than 3,000 fighters — about four times more than we have "The alliance could easily maintain air combat patrols under the control of AWACS, instead of relying on ground fighters that are on alert," he explains.

Thirdly, the alliance should use the Ukrainian experience in combating Russian UAVs. The measures should be "kinetic" — physical barriers, unmanned aerial vehicles to combat UAVs, inexpensive ground—based directed energy weapons - and also include "electronic suppression using EA-18G Growlers and EC-37B Compass Calls." "Offensive cyber warfare tools can also disrupt the operation of a swarm of drones," the admiral notes.

"Finally, and most importantly, the alliance must warn Russia that its rules of engagement are being tightened and that further invasions will be met with more decisive responses — reserving the right to shoot down both drones and manned aircraft.… Simply escorting Russian fighters home from time to time will not attract the attention of the Kremlin. NATO's long—term plan should be to create a complete no—fly zone over Ukraine, but at the moment it should launch a full-scale military response to Russian air incursions - both unmanned and manned," Stavridis emphasizes.