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We laugh but this is not uncommon. I remember reading manpower contributions to the war in Afghanistan back in ‘17 and there were two Estonians and four Icelanders on the list. Hilarious when put next to the 10s of thousands of Americans.
Sounds like they're working off of percentages
I mean they could easily say max of 100 or some percentage. And if 100 soldiers make a significant chunk of your army, you probably shouldn't send any soldiers as your country can even easily be invaded by rabbits.
At least a complete platoon, so something like 20-50 soldiers. That way it's big enough to handle missions independently instead of just creating issues for whatever platoon they're assigned to.
That would also ensure that your soldiers have some of their countrymen to fraternize with. I'm sure it's probably pretty lonely being the only Estonian in a war.
I wonder how the military units get organized when stuff like this happens, do the people from the tiny countries militaries just get told to go be part of a different military for awhile and follow those guy's orders? Do they get their own little tent and individual unique assignments from their home country?
Well generally everyone on joint bases like that reports to the base commander. There’s always a clear chain of command that transcends nations when it comes to NATO operations.
Also, I expect that most small detachments like that are just technical experts, not just straight infantry or anything lol
It's like a Eddie Murphy/Mike Myers movie where you show up to base and every person you meet is just the same guy in different outfits and makeup.
I believe they are attached to the troops of larger nations. The bilateral military integration agreements some countries in Europe have work similarly, for example a Dutch Grenadier (IIRC) unit is attached to the german Bundeswehr. For all practical purposes they are considered part of the German forces for the duration of that exchange.
Imagine needing 10s of thousands of soldiers when the Estonians can do it with 2.
Estonians are just built different
Also not uncommon going the other way too. NATO countries will commonly station just a few soldiers in countries like Estonia. It's trip wire kind of thing, it means if Russia attacks that country then there will immediately be soldiers from many different NATO countries (even just a few soldiers each) fighting to defend the country on day one.
There's more than just a handful of soldiers from each NATO countries in the Baltic countries now to deter Russia from doing something stupid. And it doesn't make sense for Estonia to deploy a lot of their military to the Red Sea given the situation with Russia. So they send one soldier as a statement that they support the operation, they simply don't currently have the military resources to contribute significantly.
The tripwire concept applies here too, an attack on a ship that soldier is on is an attack on Estonia. Doubt that will deter the Houthis (they're psychos) but it's still a show of support.