Last week NATO began its largest military exercise since the Cold War.
It’s called “Steadfast Defender 2024,” and it will include every member of NATO, plus Sweden, whose membership in the alliance is pending.
It will run for four whole months, February through May, with 90,000 troops, 1,100 combat vehicles, 80-plus fighter jets, more than 50 ships, and an untold number of helicopters and drones taking part.
The last time the alliance held an exercise close to this scope was in 1988’s “Reforger,” which juggled 125,000 NATO soldiers.
It’s been that long — 36 years — since Russia posed this grave a threat to European security.
Because a successful conquest of Ukraine would bring other former-Soviet states within Russia’s reach.
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Romania knows as well as any country just how high the stakes are. It was occupied by the Red Army in WWII and a member of the Warsaw Pact until a revolution in 1989 that allowed its transition into a democracy.
It borders Ukraine so snugly that a Russian drone crashed in its territory in September.
Of course, unlike Moldova Romania is a NATO member. So, too, are Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Finland, North Macedonia, and Slovakia.
Yet Russia dreams of reclaiming all of them.
“Now, all of the NATO member states go to bed at night, and wake up in the morning thinking of Russia,” former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev gloats. “Moreover, some of the especially cowardly and suffering from phantom pains, like temporarily occupied Poland and our Baltic provinces, have well soiled themselves.”
Make no mistake, this is how Russia views the world — through a dusty, outdated Cold War-era prism.
That’s why Germany’s Defense Minister Boris Pistorius warned of a Russian attack on NATO occurring within the next five to eight years.
Other members don’t even think it will take that long — especially if Putin has his way in Ukraine.
The United Kingdom’s army chief, General Patrick Sanders, is already calling on the British government to prepare for a mass mobilization due to the likelihood of the Ukraine war spilling over.
Similarly, Dutch Admiral Rob Bauer said last month that NATO needs to be on combat-ready footing.
And then, obviously, we have Steadfast Defender 2024 — which is largely a dry run testing the alliance’s ability to quickly transport troops from western Europe and North America to the eastern front.
Of course, if you ask Russia, they make no secret about the fact that they’re already at war with NATO.
The war “began as an operation against the Ukrainian regime and continues, in fact, as a war against NATO, with the de facto involvement of many countries of the alliance including the United States,” says Kremlin spokesman Dimitry Peskov.
Even Putin himself has asserted that Russia isn’t fighting “the Ukrainian people” who he also considers Russian, but rather Kyiv’s “Western masters” who he says have “occupied the country.”
I’d imagine he’ll make a similar case when it comes time to invade Moldova, Poland, or another one of Russia’s “Baltic provinces.”
So NATO is right to be concerned. They’re right to be preparing for this eventuality.
And investors should be too.
Because investing in military technology today won’t just safeguard your wealth in a time of global crisis, it’ll multiply it.
So make sure to check here for the hottest defense stocks on the market right now.
Fight on, Jason Simpkins Simpkins is the founder and editor of Secret Stock Files, an investment service that focuses on companies with assets — tangible resources and products that can hold and appreciate in value. He covers mining companies, energy companies, defense contractors, dividend payers, commodities, staples, legacies and more… In 2023 he joined The Wealth Advisory team as a defense market analyst where he reviews and recommends new military and government opportunities that come across his radar, especially those that spin-off healthy, growing income streams. For more on Jason, check out his editor’s page. Be sure to visit our Angel Investment Research channel on YouTube and tune into Jason’s podcasts. Want to hear more from Jason? Sign up to receive emails directly from him ranging from market commentaries to opportunities that he has his eye on. 
