Category Archives: NATO

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), or North Atlantic Alliance, the Atlantic Alliance, the Western Alliance, is a defence alliance. It was established in 1949, by the North Atlantic Treaty signed in Washington, D.C., USA, on April 4, 1949. Its headquarters are in Brussels, Belgium. Its other official name is the same name in French, Organisation du Trait de l'Atlantique Nord (OTAN).

NATO has two official languages, English and French, defined in Article 14 of the North Atlantic Treaty.

Its members in 1949 were: The United States, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, France, the United Kingdom, Canada, Portugal, Italy, Norway, Denmark and Iceland. Three years later, on 18 February 1952, Greece and Turkey also joined.

When West Germany joined the organization on 9 May 1955 it was described as "a decisive turning point in the history of our continent" by Halvard Lange, Foreign Minister of Norway at the time.[2] Indeed, the result was the Warsaw Pact, signed on 14 May 1955 by the Soviet Union and its satellite states as response to NATO.

After the Cold war in 1999 three former communist countries, Hungary, the Czech Republic, and Poland joined the NATO. On 29 March 2004 seven more Northern European and Eastern European countries joined NATO: Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania and also Slovenia, Slovakia, Bulgaria, and Romania.

Croatia and Albania received NATO membership invitation on 3 April 2008. Republic of Macedonia received only conditional invitation because it was vetoed by Greece due to Republic of Macedonia's name dispute with Greece.

View post:
NATO - Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Story highlights Turkey requested meeting under Article 4 of NATO's founding treaty It was fifth time in NATO history that members held special talks under Article 4 NATO's council: "We strongly condemn the terrorist attacks against Turkey"

"We strongly condemn the terrorist attacks against Turkey, and express our condolences to the Turkish government and the families of the victims in Suruc and other attacks against police and military officers," the council said in a statement after Tuesday's meeting, referring to an attack last week in a border town across from Kobani, Syria.

The council, which is NATO's governing body, said terrorism in any form could never be tolerated.

"Terrorism poses a direct threat to the security of NATO countries and to international stability and prosperity," the statement said. "It is a global threat that knows no border, nationality, or religion -- a challenge that the international community must fight and tackle together."

Turkey requested the meeting under Article 4 of NATO's founding treaty, which allows countries to ask for consultations when they believe their territorial integrity, political independence or security are threatened.

It was the fifth time in NATO history that members had met under Article 4, NATO spokeswoman Oana Lungescu told CNN before the meeting began. The North Atlantic Council is made up of the NATO ambassadors of the 28 member countries.

"In the wake of increased security threats following the attacks against our security and law enforcement forces in the provinces of Diyarbakr, Sanlurfa and Kilis, in particular the terrorist attack that took the lives of 32 innocent Turkish citizens in Suruc on 20 July, 2015, all necessary measures are being taken and in this context, operations are also being carried out by the Turkish Armed Forces," the Turkish Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

"Upon these recent attacks and threats directed against our national security, the North Atlantic Council has been called to a meeting by Turkey this week under Article 4 of the Washington Treaty with a view to informing our Allies about the measures we are taking and the operations we are conducting against terrorism, as well as to holding consultations with them."

The talks came as Turkey grappled with a wave of violence near its southern border with Syria, and as Turkey has made an abrupt about-face in deciding to confront the terrorist group ISIS.

Before the meeting began, Turkey's President called on NATO to "do its part" in helping address the country's concerns over security on its borders.

Read more from the original source:
Turkey calls for rare NATO talks - CNN.com

5.5645mm NATO

5.5645mm NATO with measurement, left to right: bullet, empty case, complete round with bullet in case

The 5.5645mm NATO (official NATO nomenclature 5.56 NATO) is an intermediate cartridge developed in the United States and originally chambered in the M16 rifle. Under STANAG 4172, it is a standard cartridge for NATO forces as well as many non-NATO countries.[3] It is derived from, but not identical to, the .223 Remington cartridge.

In the 1950s, the 7.6251mm NATO rifle cartridge (sold commercially as the .308 Winchester rifle cartridge)[4] was selected to replace the .30-06 Springfield as the standard NATO rifle cartridge. At the time of selection, there had been criticism that the 7.6251mm NATO was too powerful for lightweight modern service rifles, causing excessive recoil, and that the ammunition did not allow for sufficient rate of fire in modern combat.[citation needed]

The British had extensive evidence with their own experiments into an intermediate cartridge since 1945 and were on the point of introducing a .280 inch (7mm) cartridge when the selection of the 7.6251mm NATO was made. The FN company had also been involved.[5] The concerns about recoil and effectiveness were effectively overruled by the US within NATO, and the other NATO nations accepted that standardization was more important at the time than selection of the ideal cartridge.([6]The EM-2, Rifle No.9 Mk1 or "Janson rifle", was an experimental British assault rifle briefly adopted by British forces in 1951, but the decision was overturned very shortly thereafter by Winston Churchill's incoming government in an effort to secure NATO standardisation of small arms and ammunition in the face of American intransigence.) However, while the 7.6251mm NATO round became NATO standard, the US was already engaged in research of their own, which ultimately led to the 5.5645mm NATO cartridge.[citation needed]

During the late 1950s, ArmaLite and other U.S. firearm designers started their individual Small Caliber/High Velocity (SCHV) assault rifle experiments using the commercial .222 Remington cartridge. When it became clear that there was not enough powder capacity to meet U.S. Continental Army Command's (CONARC) velocity and penetration requirements, ArmaLite contacted Remington to create a similar cartridge with a longer case body and shorter neck. This became the .222 Remington Special. At the same time, Springfield Armory's Earle Harvey had Remington create an even longer cartridge case then known as the .224 Springfield. Springfield was forced to drop out of the CONARC competition, and thus the .224 Springfield was later released as a commercial sporting cartridge known as the .222 Remington Magnum. To prevent confusion among all of the competing .222 cartridge designations, the .222 Remington Special was renamed the .223 Remington. With the U.S. military adoption of the ArmaLite M16 rifle in 1963, the .223 Remington was standardized as the 5.5645mm NATO. As a commercial sporting cartridge the .223 Remington was introduced in 1964.

The 5.5645mm cartridge, along with the M16 rifle, were initially adopted by U.S. infantry forces as interim solutions to address the weight and control issues experienced with the 7.6251mm round and M14 rifle. In the late 1950s, the Special Purpose Individual Weapon program sought to create flechette rounds to allow troops to fire sabot-type projectiles to give a short flight time and flat trajectory with a muzzle velocity of 1,200 metres per second (3,900ft/s) to 1,500 metres per second (4,900ft/s). At those speeds, factors like range, wind drift, and target movement would no longer affect performance. Several manufacturers produced varying weapons designs, including traditional wooden, bullpup, "space age," and even multi-barrel designs with drum magazines. All used similar ammunition firing a 1.8mm diameter dart with a plastic "puller" sabot filling the case mouth. While the flechette ammo had excellent armor penetration, there were doubts about their terminal effectiveness against unprotected targets. Conventional cased ammunition was more accurate and the sabots were expensive to produce. The SPIW never created a weapons system that was combat effective, so the M16 was retained, and the 5.56mm round was kept as the standard U.S. infantry rifle cartridge.[5]

In a series of mock-combat situations testing in the early 1960s with the M16, M14 and AK-47, the Army found that the M16's small size and light weight allowed it to be brought to bear much more quickly.[citation needed] Their final conclusion was that an 8-man team equipped with the M16 would have the same fire-power as a current 11-man team armed with the M14.[citation needed] U.S. troops were able to carry more than twice as much 5.5645mm NATO ammunition as 7.6251mm NATO for the same weight, which would allow them a better advantage against a typical NVA unit armed with AK-47, AKM or Type 56 assault rifles.

(*AK-47/AKM magazines are much heavier than M14 and M16 magazines)

In 1977, NATO members signed an agreement to select a second, smaller caliber cartridge to replace the 7.6251mm NATO cartridge.[9] Of the cartridges tendered, the 5.5645mm NATO was successful, but not the 55gr M193 round used by the U.S. at that time. The wounds produced by the M193 round were so devastating that many[10] consider it to be inhumane.[11][12] Instead, the Belgian 62gr SS109 round was chosen for standardization. The SS109 used a heavier bullet with a steel tip and had a lower muzzle velocity for better long-range performance, specifically to meet a requirement that the bullet be able to penetrate through one side of a steel helmet at 600 meters. This requirement made the SS109 (M855) round less capable of fragmentation than the M193 and was considered more humane.[13]

Read more:
5.5645mm NATO - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sweden scrambled fighter jets to intercept two Russian military planes that flew too close to Swedish airspace.

With Russia flexing its muscles, three of its Baltic neighbors -- Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have asked NATO to permanently deploy ground troops as a deterrent.

Russian fighter jets are being watched closely by NATO as the country flexes it's muscle in the air.

CBS News

On Europe's Eastern frontier, NATO F-16s and Eurofighters drill for something they're doing more and more, intercepting Russian military aircraft flying too close for comfort to European airspace.

A cockpit video shows NATO jets shadowing Russian planes, which often try to stay invisible by turning off their transponders.

Play Video

The Royal Air Force scrambled fighter jets to escort Russian bombers away from U.K. airspace, an encounter that one analyst described to Charlie ...

We watched the NATO pilots practice from a military transport plane. But last years in the Baltic states, they did this for real more than 150 times, a nearly four-fold increase on 2013.

Follow this link:
NATO and Russia watch one another closely in Eastern ...

May 9, 2015: A Russian air force Mi-26 helicopter, front, flies over Red Square during the Victory Parade marking the 70th anniversary of the defeat of the Nazis in World War II, in Red Square in Moscow, Russia. (AP)

Thousands of Russian troops marched across Red Square under the eye of Vladimir Putin on Saturday to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the Soviet Unions World War II victory over Nazi Germany.

The largest Victory Day parade since the fall of the Soviet Union showed off Russias biggest nuclear missiles and some of Mr. Putins best new military hardware, including the much touted Armata T-14 tank.

In comments subtly directed at NATO, Mr. Putin said that military alliances were gaining strength and warned against a unipolar worldshorthand in Moscow for the global influence of the U.S. In another apparent jab at Washington, he said that the principles of international cooperation were being ignored.

We have seen attempts to create a unipolar world. We see how military-bloc thinking is gaining force. All this undermines the sustainability of global development, Mr. Putin said in front of war veterans, their chests heavy with medals, wiping away tears.

Our common goal should be the development of a system of equal security for all governments. System adequate [to deal with] modern threats, built on regional and global nonaligned bases. Only then can we ensure peace and tranquility in the world, he said.

Unlike the parade ten years ago, when U.S. President George W. Bush sat next to Mr. Putin to watch the soldiers march by, this years celebrations, boycotted by most Western leaders, highlighted the divisions wrought by the crisis in Ukraine.

This year, Mr. Putin was flanked by Chinese Premier Xi Jinping, underscoring Russias turn to the East in the face of Western sanctions. On the eve of the parade, Messrs. Xi and Putin signed a raft of deals to cement closer ties, including a promise from China to offer up to $25 billion to Russian companies who are facing an economic crisis at home.

Click for more from The Wall Street Journal.

Read the original here:
Putin takes jab at US, NATO during vast Victory Day parade ...

Nato | La Novela
Descarga http://www.mediafire.com/listen/1ndbm7lwwsb8u15/Nato+-+Amor+De+Novela.mp3 Facebook...

By: Nato Oficial

Continued here:
Nato | La Novela - Video

We are N.A.T.O. Forces
N.A.T.O. CEO SPEECH.

By: Nato Forces Records Cincinnati Branch

Continue reading here:
We are N.A.T.O. Forces - Video

Drake - Energy (GAWTBASS Nato Feelz Remix) (Bass Boosted)
Help me reach 50 subscribers by clicking the links below! 🙂 Please Leave A Like Comment! Subscribe For More: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZ8IPnnDfPy32p9o5FygS9g Follow me on.

By: Bass Boosted

Read more here:
Drake - Energy (GAWTBASS & Nato Feelz Remix) (Bass Boosted) - Video

NATO Twitter Response: NATO spokesman mocks Russia with geography lesson
NATO spokesman Jay Janzen has mocked Russia on Twitter with a cheeky #39;geography lesson #39;. In response to a Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman calling the deployment of NATO troops to ...

By: UKRAINE TODAY

Read more:
NATO Twitter Response: NATO spokesman mocks Russia with geography lesson - Video

No to Nato Daily Mail interview

By: aliencoconut

Read more here:
No to Nato Daily Mail interview - Video