Formations

NATO's operational strategic command, seated at SHAPE in Mons. Everything the alliance does operationally runs from here.

The air component command, which NATO says oversees Air Policing with 24/7 command and control from three combined air operations centres.

One of three operational-level joint force commands. NATO publishes no mapping of joint force commands to regional defence plans, and none is inferred here.

The alliance's operational headquarters in North America, and the one joint force command that publishes its own area of responsibility.

The enabling command at Ulm, responsible for the rear area and for the movement of forces across Europe.

The alliance's second strategic command, responsible for transformation, training and doctrine.

A bi-national corps headquarters at Münster, affiliated to NATO as a high-readiness land headquarters. It took responsibility for Estonia and Latvia on 30 June 2026.

The UK-led battlegroup at Tapa, with France contributing. NATO’s page of 17 June 2026 names no Estonian host formation for it, so no host-brigade claim is carried: an earlier reading of that claim did not survive P4.5.

The Canada-led formation, stood up in July 2024 under the designation NATO Multinational Brigade Latvia when Latvia became the first host to scale its forward presence to a brigade. NATO’s June 2026 page still calls all nine “multinational battlegroups” regardless of size, so the designation and the scale are recorded as the two separate facts they are.

The German-led formation. NATO has described the German presence in Lithuania as a permanent military base — the only one so described in this theatre.

The US-led battlegroup. It is distinct from the bilateral United States–Poland defence agreement and from the rotational armoured brigade, which are separate arrangements.

The Spain-led battlegroup. Spain took the framework role from Czechia on 1 July 2024, which makes the relationship younger than the deployment.

The only one of the nine whose framework nation is also its host. There is no bilateral host-and-framework relationship to record, and this module does not invent one.

The French-led battlegroup, run by France as Mission Aigle. NATO’s June 2026 page describes it at battlegroup level notwithstanding brigade-level descriptions elsewhere.

The Italy-led battlegroup on the Black Sea flank.

The ninth and newest formation, under Swedish framework leadership. NATO has published NO garrison, NO lead unit and NO headquarters for it, and none is inferred here from the framework relationship or from geography.

The armed forces of the Baltic’s central geography. Their organisation pages publish categories of unit — regiments, wings, flotillas, centres and schools — and name none of them, in either language. This tree is five records for that reason and no other.

The largest land force on the eastern flank. The rendering failure that stopped P4 was solvable and P4.5 solved it: the armed forces’ own portal publishes a command layer, which this tree now carries. It does NOT publish a roster — its land-forces pages describe arms of service, not named divisions or brigades — so the tree stops at command and service level.

The Belgian armed forces. Their land component page gives a capability count — one special operations headquarters and five motorised infantry battalions — without naming a single unit, which is why this tree stops at component level.

The US combatant command for Europe. Its commander is dual-hatted as Supreme Allied Commander Europe.

The US Army corps whose forward command post was announced in June 2022 as permanently stationed in Poland — described by the State Department as the first permanently stationed US forces on NATO’s eastern flank.

Land · under Ground Forces

Military district re-established in 2024 from the Western MD split, oriented toward the Baltic and Finland; peacetime parent of the 6th Combined Arms Army.

The Belarusian armed forces. Every structural claim on this side of the module rests on think-tank and civil-society monitoring rather than on allied government assessment, and the records carry that grade rather than borrowing a higher one.

Covers airspace across the Nordic region and the Arctic — the newest of the three and the one that matters most to this theatre.

Covers airspace south of the Alps. NATO states the three centres' areas overlap, providing redundancy.

Covers airspace north of the Alps. The relevant centre decides which air base an interception is flown from.

The deployable air command and control element, at Poggio Renatico in Italy.

The southern joint force command. Both Romanian-hosted headquarters place it above them on their own published charts.

The land component command, at Izmir. Its seat sits outside this theatre's geography and the command itself is structurally indispensable to it.

The maritime component command, at Northwood. It directs the standing maritime groups that operate in the Baltic.

The alliance’s point of contact with commercial shipping, co-located with the maritime command.

One of NATO’s four standing naval forces, published by Allied Maritime Command as under its control and continuously available. MARCOM’s per-group pages do not resolve, so nothing below the name and the parent command is recorded — no composition, no area, no rotation.

The second of NATO’s two standing maritime groups, published by Allied Maritime Command as under its control and continuously available. Its composition and operating area are not recorded: they change operationally and the Atlas models the standing organisation only.

One of NATO’s two standing mine countermeasures groups, published by Allied Maritime Command as under its control and continuously available. Mine countermeasures is the capability nearest to the seabed-infrastructure question this module tracks, which is why the group is authored rather than deferred.

The second of NATO’s two standing mine countermeasures groups, published by Allied Maritime Command as under its control and continuously available. No vessel, contributing state or area assignment is recorded.

One of the few military capabilities the alliance owns and operates itself rather than borrowing from members.

The alliance’s ISR force at Sigonella, renamed from the NATO AGS Force in September 2023.

A maritime striking and support force headquarters at Lisbon, listed under Allied Command Operations.

A joint NATO-Ukraine centre at Bydgoszcz, established to draw lessons from the war.

A NATO training centre at Bydgoszcz in Poland — one of the few alliance bodies physically seated inside this theatre.

The alliance’s warfare centre at Stavanger in Norway.

A multinational corps headquarters at Szczecin. NATO says it "covers" the battlegroups in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland.

A multinational divisional headquarters at Elbląg. NATO says it "works closely with" the battlegroups in Poland and Lithuania.

A divisional headquarters whose forward elements are at Ādaži in Latvia while the rest is at Karup in Denmark. NATO says it "cooperates closely with" the battlegroups in Estonia and Latvia.

A divisional headquarters at Székesfehérvár. NATO says it "has responsibility for" the battlegroups in Hungary and Slovakia.

A multinational corps headquarters at Sibiu. With the southeastern division it "covers" the battlegroups in Bulgaria and Romania.

A divisional headquarters at Bucharest, covering the Bulgarian and Romanian battlegroups with the southeastern corps.

A land component command at Mikkeli in Finland. NATO calls it "the lead command for" the battlegroup in Finland — the only one of the six described that way.

The small allied headquarters established under the 2014 Readiness Action Plan to coordinate the rapid deployment of allied forces in a host region, support collective-defence planning and assist with training and exercises. The Slovak defence ministry, which hosts one, states they do not hold the status of a NATO military base. How many exist in 2026, and where, is not publicly enumerated.

The armed forces of the state with the alliance’s longest land border with Russia, and its deepest mobilisation system.

The air service.

The land service, whose brigades and regiments the defence forces publish by name in English.

A named army brigade published on the army’s own units page.

A named army regiment published on the army’s own units page.

A named army brigade published on the army’s own units page.

A named army brigade published on the army’s own units page.

A named army brigade published on the army’s own units page.

A named army brigade published on the army’s own units page.

A named army regiment published on the army’s own units page.

The logistics command, published as one of the four services on the defence forces’ own root page.

The naval service, operating in the Gulf of Finland and the northern Baltic.

The border service, which states that it contributes to Finland’s defence. Its attachment mechanism under the Border Guard Act is not set out on the English site.

The air service. No wing is named.

The land service. No regiment or brigade is named on the armed forces’ own pages.

The Home Guard, the territorial component.

The naval service. No flotilla is named.

The armed forces of the High North. Their own organisation page names six branches and thirteen further organisations, and no brigades at all.

The cyber defence service.

The logistics organisation.

The national joint operational headquarters.

The army. No brigades are named on the armed forces’ organisation page.

The Home Guard, published as a branch in its own right. Its district structure is not published.

The air force.

The navy.

The special forces, published as a branch.

The armed forces of the state that controls the Baltic approaches and co-frames a multinational division.

The air service.

The joint command for the Arctic, published on the Danish defence structure page.

The land service, which publishes brigades, regiments and garrisons in English — the deepest such publication in the Nordic set.

A named army brigade, published with its garrison at Holstebro.

A named army brigade, published with its garrison at Slagelse.

The naval service.

The special operations command.

The voluntary territorial organisation.

The armed forces of the alliance’s most north-easterly member.

The air service, published with an air defence wing and an air surveillance wing.

A command published on the defence forces’ structure page.

The land service.

The divisional headquarters published on the defence forces’ own structure page. Reporting places it under 1 (German/Netherlands) Corps; that relationship is carried as a typed edge, not as a parent.

The naval service, published with four squadrons.

The special operations force, published on the structure page.

A command published on the defence forces’ structure page.

The voluntary territorial defence organisation — a material part of the Estonian defence model.

The armed forces of the state hosting the alliance’s first brigade-scale forward formation.

The air service.

The land service. Its mechanised infantry brigade is not named on any Latvian page opened in the source audit, so it is not authored here.

Latvia’s regular mechanised brigade. Its own armed forces publish it, in Latvian, as the Land Forces’ Mechanized Infantry Brigade and describe it as the formation that prepares the national battalions and combat support and service units; NATO separately names it as the formation from which the multinational battlegroup was transferred to NATO Multinational Brigade Latvia in October 2024. Nothing about its strength or stations is recorded.

The naval service.

The National Guard, which its own site describes as the armed forces’ largest and most territorially distributed structure — and the only Latvian component that publishes its brigades.

A National Guard brigade, published by name.

A National Guard brigade, published by name.

A National Guard brigade, published by name.

A National Guard brigade, published by name.

The armed forces of the state that holds one side of the Suwałki ground and hosts the presence NATO describes as a permanent German base. Its components are established here from the Lithuanian legal-acts register rather than from its own web estate, which remains bot-gated.

The defence staff. The Land Force statute of 1 September 2026 has the Land Force assigning capabilities to the Chief of the Defence Staff for operational direction and collecting military intelligence to the Defence Staff’s collection plan. Its own statute is approved separately.

The land service, defined by ministerial order V-780 of 1 September 2026 as a type of force of the Lithuanian Armed Forces subordinate to their Commander, responsible for the military protection and defence of Lithuanian land territory. Seated in Vilnius.

The divisional headquarters between the Land Force and Lithuania’s manoeuvre brigades. Its place under the Land Force comes from the engineer regiment’s statute, which lists the orders governing the regiment in descending order — Commander of the Armed Forces, Land Force commander, First Division commander.

A manoeuvre brigade. Its statute of 8 April 2026 states in terms that the brigade is a formation of the First Division subordinate to the division’s commander, and gives its seat at Rukla in Jonava district — the garrison NATO publishes for the German-framework multinational battlegroup.

Lithuania’s second manoeuvre brigade, seated at Klaipėda. Its statute of 31 August 2026 makes it a formation subordinate to the First Division commander and repeals the 2015 order, under which the brigade was titled a motorised infantry brigade; the honorific title is the current designation.

The division’s engineer regiment, seated at Kaunas. Its statute of 10 July 2026 makes it directly subordinate to the First Division commander. It is the only named divisional troop the register’s titles establish; the brigades’ battalions sit below this module’s structural floor.

The volunteer force. Its place in the tree comes from the Land Force statute of 1 September 2026, which exempts the Volunteer Force commander from the rule that the Land Force commander approves the statutes of directly subordinate unit commanders. Its regional rinktinės are named only in municipal cooperation agreements and are not authored.

The air service. A ministerial order approves the statutes of the Air Force and of its structural units, and the Land Force statute names it among the services the land service trains with. Its subordinate units appear in that order’s title only as a class, so none is authored.

The naval service, its statute and structure approved by ministerial order V-152 of 17 February 2016 together with the statutes of its subordinate units, amended since. Those subordinate units are not named in the order’s title and none is authored here.

The special operations service, named as a component of the Lithuanian Armed Forces in the Land Force statute of 1 September 2026 and governed by a standing order of the Commander of the Armed Forces on selection into it. No structure below the service is publicly established.

The force-development body. The Land Force statute of 1 September 2026 has the Land Force coordinating training-area occupancy plans with it, which establishes the organisation and its function. No source establishes where it sits in the Lithuanian command structure, so it carries no tree parent: its own official name places it inside the armed forces and no further.

The general staff, published on the armed forces’ own portal alongside the office of its Chief. The portal does not state its relationship to the two operational-level commands, and none is asserted here.

The general command for the services, published on the armed forces’ portal. The six Polish services remain filed under the armed forces root rather than under this command, because no source read states that relationship.

The operational command, published on the armed forces’ portal as a body distinct from the general command. What it commands, and under what authority, is not published there and is not inferred.

The support and logistics inspectorate, published on the armed forces’ portal. It is the Polish body nearest in function to the host-nation support role this module treats as reinforcement infrastructure, and it holds no location edge.

The air service.

The cyberspace defence service.

The land service, named from the ministry’s own English navigation.

The naval service.

The special forces service.

The territorial defence service.

The Slovak armed forces. The only structure their ministry publishes is one PDF, opened in P4.5: it charts the MINISTRY — sections, departments and divisions — and names no formation, no command and no general staff branch. The root with nothing beneath it is the ceiling, not an unopened file.

The Hungarian Defence Forces — the only host that frames its own forward battlegroup, and the state publishing the deepest structure in this theatre, entirely in Hungarian.

The joint operations command, published on the ministry’s Hungarian-language site.

A named infantry brigade. The ministry site indicates further brigades and regiments beyond the two captured.

A named armoured infantry brigade.

The logistics support command.

The special operations command.

The territorial defence and recruitment command.

The Czech armed forces — depth, industry and logistics behind the central flank.

A major command.

A major command.

A major command published in English on the ministry’s organisational structure page.

A major command. No brigades, regiments or bases are published.

A directorate under the Chief of the General Staff.

A major command.

The armed forces of the alliance’s Black Sea shoulder. The defence portal publishes services and nothing under them, but each service publishes its own chart: the Land Forces name two divisions and no brigade, the Naval Forces name their fleet and river commands, and the Air Force names its units and the systems it flies.

The air service, which flies the air-policing mission over the Black Sea flank.

The Romanian Air Force’s component command, published on the service’s own unit list. It is the national body through which Romanian air activity meets allied air command, and no relationship to any NATO headquarters is asserted here beyond what NATO itself publishes.

Romania’s ground-based air-defence brigade, published on the Air Force’s unit list. Its sites, sectors, holdings and readiness are not published and are refused here: this module records that an air-defence formation exists, never where its coverage lies.

The regiment named for the Patriot system on the Romanian Air Force’s unit list. Its place under the Air Force is published; whether it sits under the surface-to-air missile brigade is not, so it is filed under the service. No site or battery is recorded.

The land service.

One of the two divisions on the Romanian Land Forces Staff’s own organisation chart. The chart lists the division’s combat brigades, mixed artillery regiments, air-defence regiment, logistic base and supporting battalions as classes and names none of them.

The second of the two divisions on the Romanian Land Forces Staff’s organisation chart. Its subordinate brigades and regiments are listed as classes without names, and no formation below the division is authored for Romania.

The naval service.

The seagoing command of the Romanian Naval Forces, published on the service’s own organisation page. Its subordinate divizioane are battalion-equivalents and sit below this module’s structural floor; only its frigate flotilla is authored.

Romania’s frigate flotilla, the largest formation the Naval Forces publish under the Fleet Command. No vessel, holding, readiness state or basing detail is recorded: the record is the organisation, not its order of battle.

The Danube command of the Romanian Naval Forces, published on the service’s organisation page. It is the formation that makes Romania’s river frontage an organised military space rather than only a border, and it is authored for that reason.

Romania’s marine infantry regiment, listed under the River Flotilla Command on the Naval Forces’ organisation page. Its strength, equipment and stations are not published and none is inferred.

The Bulgarian armed forces. Their ministry’s own sitemap, read in Bulgarian as well as English, carries no armed-forces structure section at all; the one military body it links is the NATO force integration staff element on Bulgarian territory. The root with nothing beneath it is the ceiling.

The German armed forces — the depth behind the flank and the framework nation of the brigade in Lithuania.

The cyber and information domain service, described by the Bundeswehr as the fourth service as of May 2024.

The army. No divisions or brigades are published on the Bundeswehr organisation hub.

The air force.

The navy.

The support area, published beside the four services.

The armed forces of the state hosting a joint force command and co-framing a bi-national corps.

The air service.

The land service, which publishes its three brigades by name in English.

A named army brigade. Garrisons are not published — the army says only "barracks across the Netherlands and abroad".

A named army brigade. Garrisons are not published.

A named army brigade. Garrisons are not published.

The ground-based air defence command, published on the army’s units page.

The gendarmerie service, published as one of the four services.

The naval service.

The air component.

The cyber component.

The land component. No unit is named on its own page.

The naval component.

The US Army service component command for the European and African theatres.

The US Navy service component command for the European and African theatres.

The US Air Force service component command for the European and African theatres.

Land · under Leningrad Military District

Combined-arms army historically covering the northwest; engaged on the Kharkiv axis in the full-scale war.

The Baltic-based fleet; contributes naval infantry and coastal formations to the war.

Baltic Fleet naval infantry at Baltiysk, committed to the land war as the 336th Guards Brigade and announced expanded to divisional status in December 2025; the division's own designation is reported, not confirmed.

The air and air defence service.

The general staff.

One of two operational commands. A documented, dated commander vacancy has been recorded for it.

The special operations forces — the only branch for which 2026 unit formation is documented in the monitoring read.

The territorial defence component.

One of two operational commands.