Organic Assets.

This is coolbert:

Those Baltic nations constituent nations part and parcel of NATO not having much of an organic capacity for self-defense.

Consider from the CIA World Factbook that the populations of the Baltic nations about:

* Latvia 2.2 million. 

* Lithuania 3.5 million.

* Estonia 1.3 million.  

From that rule-of-thumb as has been generally accepted ever since the time prior to the Great War [WW1], nation/states under the most ideal of conditions able to "man", organize, equip, train and sustain about one division per million inhabitants.

"all of the great powers maintained enormous armies, the 'ideal' being that a country should be able to field one or two divisions for every million inhabitants."

A division recognized in the general sense as a military unit of about 14,000 to 18,000 troops and the largest unit in an army as having a fixed structure.

"divisions, usually of 14,000-18,000 men in the infantry"

That fixed structure of a division [infantry] in the modern context usually consisting of:

* Three regiments of infantry.

* One regiment of tanks.

* One regiment of artillery.

* One regiment of air defense.

That process of "manning", organizing, training, equipping and sustaining a single brand-new division a laborious process, taking about SEVEN YEARS!

From Strategy Page see the entire Professor Al Nofi CIC # 440 article regarding this topic. Thank you Professor Al.

That "ideal" for those Baltic nations not even existing, organic self-sufficient defense not a possible under current circumstances EVEN WITH COMBINED RESOURCES!

coolbert.