The US Army needs new maps of Europe. They are willing to pay millions

The US military is interested in everything. Aerospace photograms, stereo packs, geodesic maps, land use patterns and underground communications, including utility networks, topographic data, control and measuring and cadastral surveys - both on electronic and paper media. As well as access to existing cartographic databases. The zone of interest is 31 European countries, and there is no Belarus, Moldavia and Russia on the list, but there is Ukraine and Georgia.The bid is posted on the website of US government orders. The customer is the European division of the United Engineering Corps of the United States Army (USACE). The duration of the proposed contract is five years, the total cost is $ 50 million.The purpose for which the Pentagon is willing to spend such an impressive amount to acquire a huge number of the most diverse maps of Europe is not specified in the document. It is only said that the materials received will be used "for preliminary planning."Fear of getting stuck in trafficThe publication of this competitive announcement indicates that the United States has decided to seriously take up the modernization of the communications infrastructure in Europe, which is poorly adapted for the rapid movement of troops, says Vice President of the International Public Foundation Experimental Creative Center Yury Byaly."Primary studies by the Pentagon and NATO engineering services have shown that if necessary, promptly redeploying troops to the East will fail - not those roads, not those bridges, not those ports and airfields. Brussels and Washington require European governments to retool the transport infrastructure, but apparently, they don’t really rely on them. So the Pentagon decided to take the bull by the horns and first evaluate the scale of the problem, ”the expert says.
In the fall of 2017, the secret report of the North Atlantic Alliance leaked to the press about serious logistical difficulties that do not allow for prompt response to an attack from the East. "After the end of the Cold War, NATO’s atrophied ability to carry out rapid logistical amplification on a substantially increased territory," the document noted.

In June, The Washington Post published a large article that began like this: "American generals are worried - if they have to confront Russia, then the most powerful troops in the world can get stuck in traffic." An example was cited: units of the US Army returning to Germany from exercises in Georgia, instead of two planned weeks, waited for their armored vehicles for four months — their deployment took so long. On the Romanian-Hungarian border, all the equipment had to be fitted on a new platform on railway platforms - the Hungarian border guards thought that it was not reliably fixed. Then, due to the absence of one of the inspectors, the lettered staff did not fit into the window created for it in the timetable and was forced to drag across Germany, passing passenger and cargo trains.
In principle, European communications are not intended for the operational movement of troops, and their modernization will require a lot of time and money. Nevertheless, there is no doubt that NATO and, above all, the main sponsor of the alliance, the United States, will solve this problem. So retired Lieutenant General, Chairman of the Council of Veterans of the Engineering Forces Nikolay Topilin assesses the situation.According to him, the weakest place in the transport infrastructure of Europe is bridges and tunnels, which are not designed for heavy military equipment and do not correspond to the required dimensions. It is necessary to strengthen or rebuild them. The railway network is developed much weaker than the Russian. Many airports - even international - do not have runways suitable for military aircraft. The same story with seaports - they are not intended for entry of large-tonnage warships with a large draft - the bottom should be deepened, the moorings should be strengthened.

Most of the problems, of course, in the East - in the former "countries of people's democracy" and the post-Soviet states. In Poland, great difficulties with bridges and tunnels, as well as airfields. In the Baltic States at the railways, the width of the gauge of the Russian standard. Wagons coming from the West need to change wheeled carts, and there is no question of a quick transfer of troops and equipment.
"The main strategic problem of Europe is that all communication networks there developed chaotically, depending on the needs of commercial logistics, but without taking into account defense interests. Whereas in Russia, the construction of any transport object that may have operational and tactical significance is traditionally carried out with standards prescribed by the military. Bridges and tunnels have well-defined characteristics, the means of communication can be used as frontal or rapid roads, "explains Nikolay Topilin.Modernization of the communications infrastructure of Europe, which the Pentagon and NATO have aimed at, is called the engineering preparation of a theater of military operations in the language of the military, the general said. According to him, the relevant costs can be measured in hundreds of billions of dollars.It is hardly a question of preparing for a real war - rather, this is another attempt to impose an arms race on Russia, says Yury Byaly. Moscow is being drawn into this super-expensive process with the risk of damaging its own economy.
The arms race is a two-edged process, recalls Nikolay Topilin. A potential adversary will begin to arm heavily only if the threat to him is really serious. Therefore, the preparations for war that NATO and the United States started in Europe are very real. And any gun sooner or later can shoot.