Lower thirds:

00:00-00:07 Russian MoD
00:07-00:11 Andrius Kubilius, EU Defense Commissioner
00:33-00:47 Henna Virkkunen, EU Commission VP
01:14-01:26 Mihai Chihaia, European Policy Centre
01:27-01:46 File
01:52-02:10 Ben Hodges, US Army general (retired)
02:29-02:35 Mihai Chihaia, European Policy Centre
02:40-02:49 Ben Hodges, US Army general (retired)

Script:

00:00 
TRACK:
ON-SCREEN “Russian MoD”
Fears that Russia may strike beyond Ukraine suggest ever-shorter timelines.
 
00:07
SOT: Andrius Kubilius, EU Defense Commissioner
“Putin can be ready to test Article 5 during next two or four years, before 2030.”
 
00:11
What HASN’T changed quickly is the ability to ensure NATO would be there to fight back.
 
Right now back-up forces and firepower from across the alliance trying to get to a crisis spot would face LOTS of problems, hundreds of them identified by the European Commission itself as it launches the latest multi-billion euro plan to change that.
 
00:32
SOT: Henna Virkkunen, EU Commission VP
“The White Paper identified over 500 ‘hotspot' projects for military mobility that needs to be addressed urgently. Our objective is, that by end 2027, we will have an EU-wide military mobility area.”

00:47 
That’s high ambition based on today’s situation, where for decades too few efforts have been made to adapt roads and bridges for heavy military vehicles…while it can take up to 60 days, for example, for military equipment to get from France to Romania due to bureaucracy and border procedures.
 
Analysts note that fixing these sometimes literal roadblocks are long-term expensive projects politicians have simply avoided addressing.
 
01:14
SOT: Mihai Chihaia, European Policy Centre
“We have the strategies. We have the priorities to enhance military mobility, but then what is needed in the end is political will. And what we see, according to my opinion, is that the political will is not where it should be .”

01:27 
ON-SCREEN: “File”
More than a decade ago when US Army General Ben Hodges commanded American forces in Europe, he ran into such red tape and restrictions trying to carry out multinational exercises with NATO forces —
once paratroopers were asked to show passports in the middle of an exercise.
 
Hodges coined the term “military schengen zone” to call for harmonized transport plans across alliance territory, something still lacking.

01:52 
SOT: Ben Hodges, US Army general (retired)
“We need the same effect that a truckload of apples could go from Poland all the way to Lisbon, Portugal without ever stopping. You know, because they could travel all the way through the Schengen Zone. And I said, that's what we need for NATO forces, for military forces, to be able to move without stopping.”
 
02:11
Some nations have cooperated to set up such corridors — a group led by the Netherlands, Germany and Poland — a model for the rest of the continent.
 
Mihai Chihaia says some improvements could be made immediately — like simply having conversations between ministries, armed forces, national and local authorities and the private sector.
 
02:29
SOT: Mihai Chihaia, European Policy Centre
“these actors don't really cooperate together to enhance military mobility. In some cases, they don't even speak to each other.”
 
Hodges says when they do — they need to understand just what’s at stake.
 
02:46
SOT: Ben Hodges, US Army general (retired)
“there's just still too many people don't believe that Russia would actually really attack. They are. That's the whole point. They are conducting operations against us now.”
 
02:51
And while NATO warns adversaries it’s ready to “fight tonight”, many of the projects which would ensure it could keep up that battle should have been started yesterday.