The European Union had also taken President Stein’s advice and expanded their military capabilities during the past several years, though not as aggressively as the British had. Where they differed from Great Britain was their expansion into drone technology; they had not placed significant resources into modernizing their military. They increased personnel, but continued to use equipment that was not on par with the technological advancements in military equipment the Russians, Chinese and Americans were now using. Full modernization of their forces to include mobile laser defense systems, railgun air defense systems and newer infantry rifles and tanks would be costly, and was simply not something they were willing to do yet.
The EU had increased their active duty army to 350,000 personnel with an additional 1.4 million in the reserves. Since the start of hostilities in the Middle East and the civil unrest taking place in cities all across the EU, Chancellor Lowden had most of the military deployed in the various cities attempting to put down the violence. They had yet to activate their reserves, or deploy their active duty forces with their full combat equipment. They were being bogged down, trying to assist local law enforcement with restoring order.
As Chancellor Lowden walked into the conference room, the arguing between the Defense Minister, André Gouin, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Paolo Prodi, was in full swing. The two ministers had been quarreling for weeks over the war in the Middle East and the intelligence being shared by the Americans and British about the Russian troop deployments. They disagreed strongly about what it all meant.
Minister Prodi shouted at his compatriot, “The Russians are not going to invade the EU! They might get involved in assisting the Islamic Republic in their fight against the Israelis and the Americans, but they are not going to intervene in Europe. Besides, there are 350,000 U.S. troops positioned in England, Germany, and Italy. Even if they decide to invade, the Americans will keep them busy long enough to allow the EU to fully mobilize.”
Minister Gouin had been arguing for the activation of the reserves and making preparations in case the Russians really did invade the EU. He was unscathed by the impolite speech from his co-worker. “I do not want to place all of our hopes on the American forces. You do realize that there is significant risk that the U.S. might soon be engaged in a nuclear fight with the Russians or the Chinese, right? The Americans will certainly respond to the horrific nuclear attack on their country. When they do, this might escalate other parties to participate in kind. The Chinese have already used several nuclear tipped torpedoes, and the U.S. has responded by destroying several Chinese harbors. That may be the extent of the nuclear exchange now, but who knows what tomorrow holds?”
“Gentlemen, please stop bickering. The British are about to come online and we need to decide what actions we are going to take.” Chancellor Lowden was clearly annoyed at his senior staff.
A technician interrupted the conversation, “—Chancellor, the British are ready to begin.”
Lowden shifted his eyes to the holographic screen. As it came to life, he could see the British senior military leaders were all present. He nodded in acknowledgement before greeting them. “Mr. Prime Minister, it is good to see you. I am sorry it could not be under better circumstances.”
PM Blair was if nothing else, a blunt and direct politician. He did not have anything personal against the EU Chancellor, but like most Europeans, he was slow to react and quick to give in to the fringes of the EU’s political parties and activist groups. “Mr. Chancellor, I will cut to the chase and keep this discussion short. We have a tremendous amount of work to do. By now, we all know the IR used two nuclear weapons against New York and Baltimore. Clearly the war is going to escalate, whether we like it or not. Are you going to mobilize your reserves and prepare to meet the Russians? Time is running out”.
“We have not mobilized our reserves just yet; our focus has been on putting down the uprisings in our cities. Not everyone in our government is convinced that the American intelligence about a Russian invasion is correct. I would also like to add that in light of the nuclear detonations last night, the Americans are likely to use nuclear weapons of their own, and we do not want to appear to be a threat to Russia and potentially encourage them to use nuclear weapons in a pre-emptive strike against the EU,” Lowden said, not entirely convinced of his own intelligence services’ assessment of the situation.
PM Blair was clearly irritated, but not surprised to learn his EU counterparts were not taking the military situation as seriously as the rest of the Allies. “If the EU is not going to take any precautions or preparation in spite of the evidence of a massive Russian troop buildup on your borders, then are you expecting the Americans to save you?” asked PM Blair with a bit of scorn in his voice.
“If the Russians do invade, our forces will stop them. The Americans will honor the NATO defensive pact,” said Minister Prodi.
“—Just as you have honored that same defensive pact when the Americans were attacked by the IR?” interrupted PM Blair.
“We have assisted the Americans by providing our bases to launch their invasion and giving them logistical support,” Minister Prodi retorted, with the same level of sarcasm.
PM Blair fixed his gaze on the Chancellor and announced, “Chancellor Lowden, we have expressed our concerns and offered to coordinate a defense if the Russians do invade. If they invade and the EU has still not activated its reserves and made preparations for the defense of Europe, then we will be forced to focus our defensive effort on protecting Britain. We are an island nation and are not equipped to defend Europe.”
Without even saying goodbye, the PM Blair abruptly ended the video conference call.
“Well that went about as well as we could have expected,” said General Volker Naumann, the EU Defense Chief of Staff. Naumann was a German military officer, and as such, received enough training from the Americans to know that if their intelligence suggested the Russians were going to invade, then in all likelihood the report was correct.
“Typical British arrogance,” Minister Prodi said, dismissing the PMs warning.
Chancellor Lowden sighed deeply. “Blair is right; we cannot rely on the Americans and British to provide the bulk of our defense. The Americans are already stretched thin; if the Americans have to choose between defending Alaska, Israel and their other interests, they will choose them over us. The British military is just not big enough to fully defend Europe; they will have their hands full with the Russian Navy.”
“I want our reserves activated immediately. Our active forces need to be pulled out of the cities and prepared to meet the Russians now… Blair is right, we have squandered precious time and disregarded the warnings the Americans have given us. Let us hope we are not too late.”
While the Central EU government began to mobilize their reserves and prepare the active duty force to meet a possible Russian invasion, the individual member states started to activate their own military reserves and national guard forces. Chief among them was Poland, the Czech Republic, Germany and Romania. Germany maintained an active force of 250,000 soldiers, the Czechs 95,000, the Romanians 130,000 and the Pols 190,000.
The central EU government maintained a military force separate from the member states (in a similar fashion to the US with the State National Guard units). People from any member state could join the central government forces and reserves or they could join their own country’s military. The central government also had the power to draft individuals from each member state, up to the size of 25 % of the member state’s active duty force. Since Germany had a military force of 250,000 soldiers, they would have to provide, if necessary, as many as 62,500 citizens during an EU draft.