But there is hope. Here's What You Need to Remember: Critics point out that the Spearhead alone would stand little chance of holding back a full-scale mechanized invasion. However, the brigade’s role is essentially political. Were Russia to engage in a conflict with a NATO member, it would likely be to seize lightly populated states like the Baltics in two or three days before NATO can deploy reinforcement On October 25, 2018, over fifty thousand military personnel braved chilly Scandinavian weather to begin Operation Trident Juncture—a massive exercise simulating a defense of Norway against land and amphibious invasion, and by some accounts the largest North Atlantic Treaty Organization exercise since the end of the Cold War.