TRANSFORMATION
While changes in NATO’s strategic policies and institutions are necessary to combat the threats posed by terrorism, NATO’s leaders have stressed that without a transformation in NATO’s capabilities – including improved interoperability, changed doctrine and advances in joint warfare – NATO’s relevance and effectiveness will remain in question. Indeed, one of the key decisions at the Prague Summit in November 2002 was the approval of the Prague Capabilities Commitment (PCC). The PCC is designed to ensure that the Alliance possesses the operational capabilities required to effectively deal with the new security threats. Individual NATO countries have made firm and specific political commitments to acquire the capabilities that will enable the Alliance to counter the menace of terrorism successfully.
These improvements in capabilities include the critical areas of chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear defense; intelligence, surveillance and target acquisition; air-to-ground surveillance; command, control and communications; precision guided munitions and suppression of enemy air defenses (SEAD); strategic air and sea lift; air-to-air refueling; and deployable combat support and combat service support units.
While certainly a vast task, capability enhancement remains a foundational issue for NATO’s continued relevance. However, specific improvements in military capabilities are not enough. In order to combat terrorism and other challenges effectively in the new security environment, NATO has recognized that it must, on the strategic level, transform how it operates, thinks, and trains.
A critical step towards such a transformation in both capability and strategic effectiveness was the establishment of Allied Command Transformation (ACT) on 19
June 2003. ACT supplanted the headquarters for Allied Command Atlantic (ACLANT), a command which was disbanded. ACT’s role is to promote transformation, interoperability, and capabilities enhancement in NATO’s militaries in order to guarantee that NATO’s forces are trained and equipped to meet the challenges of the new security environment. To enhance the trans-Atlantic link and facilitate close interaction and synchronization with U.S. transformation efforts, ACT is co-located with the U.S. Joint Forces Command (USJFCOM) in Norfolk, Virginia. USJFCOM is intended to serve as the transformation engine within the United States military.
At ACT establishment ceremonies NATO Secretary General Lord Robertson stated,
ACT will shape the future of combined and joint operations. It will identify new concepts, and bring them to maturity. It will then turn these transformational concepts into reality; a reality shared by the entire NATO Alliance.41
According to ACT’s website, its central mission is as follows:
ACT leads transformation within the Alliance, to include concept development and military experimentation. It also stimulates transformation in national forces, and those of NATO’s Partners. It ensures the infusion of research & technology to address shortfalls and develop new concepts and doctrine through extensive networks. ACT is responsible for joint training and doctrine development within the Alliance. It also leverages the outputs of NATO Agencies and brings coherence to their programs by developing joint doctrine and directing the curricula of NATO’s schools and colleges.42
The transformation of NATO’s capabilities is comprised of five core processes:
Strategic Concepts, Policy and Interoperability (SCPI); Joint Experimentation, Exercises and Assessment (JEEA); Requirements & Capability Planning and Implementation (RCPI); Joint Education and Training (JET); and Future Capabilities Research and Technology (FCRT).43 SCPI serves as the primary conduit for the introduction of joint
41 “New NATO Transformation Command Established”. Available at
[http://www.nato.int/docu/update/2003/06-june/e0618a.htm]. 12 November 2003.
42 “Allied Command Transformation Fact Sheet.” Available at [www.nato.int/act]. 12 November 2003.
43 “ACT’s Mission.” Available at [http://www.act.nato.int/welcome/mission.html]. 12 November 2003.
and combined interoperability doctrine and standardization. Through the JEEA process, ACT conducts joint and combined warfighting experiments and evaluates their outcomes for use and implementation throughout the Alliance. RCPI is the process by which ACT identifies requirements and coordinates the development of required capabilities through the NATO Defense Planning Process. Through Joint Education and Training, ACT is responsible for the training of all NATO personnel and headquarters’ staffs. Lastly, the Future Capabilities Research and Technology process coordinates NATO research and technology initiatives to support the ongoing transformation of NATO’s military capabilities.
In addition to these five key processes in NATO’s transformation, three major commands report directly to Allied Command Transformation. The Joint Analysis Lessons Learned Center (JALLC), based in Monsanto, Portugal, is NATO’s central agency for the analysis of all NATO military operations, training, experiments and exercises. Analysis requirements will be compiled into a prioritized Bilateral-Strategic Command Analysis Requirements List (ARL) that will be developed in close coordination with NATO commands and agencies. This comprehensive list “will reflect the broad analysis concerns of NATO regarding doctrine, concepts, procedures, structures, organizations, and materiel in order to sustain maximum benefit from analysis activities.”44 JALLC’s pivotal duties will include compiling the lessons learned from each iteration of the NATO Response Force (NRF) and recommending improvements.45
Another major command responsible to ACT is the Joint Force Training Center (JFTC). The JFTC is located in Bydgoszcz, Poland, and focuses on joint and combined training at the tactical level in order to achieve tactical interoperability among NATO’s militaries.
Lastly, the Joint Warfare Center (JWC) in Stavanger, Norway, promotes and conducts NATO’s joint and combined experimentation, analysis and doctrine
44 “Allied Command Transformation Fact Sheet.” Available at [www.nato.int/act]. 12 November 2003.
45 The NATO Response Force (NRF) is NATO’s new combined, joint force capable of expeditionary operations. It was officially established 15 October 2003 and will involve different iterations (forces assigned and command responsibilities) every six months. The NRF is the focus of the next section of this chapter.
development in order to “maximize transformational synergy and to improve NATO’s capabilities and interoperability.”46 The JWC will assist ACT in the development of new technologies and modeling and simulation, as well as conducting training in the new concepts and doctrine for NATO’s joint and combined staffs.
One of the cornerstones of NATO’s Allied Command Transformation is its collaboration with the United States Joint Forces Command (USJFCOM). In 1999, USJFCOM was established to serve as the lead transformational command within the United States military, and at the Prague Summit in November 2002, NATO took a similar course with the establishment of ACT.47 Co-located with USFJCOM headquarters in Norfolk, Virginia, and commanded by the same officer, ACT is expected to fully leverage the transformational gains being made by the United States military and to promote the development of a more cohesive and effective Alliance.
Admiral Edmund Giambastiani, USN, upon assuming command of Joint Forces Command in the fall of 2002, indicated that one of his key objectives involved supporting the transformation of U.S. and Allied capabilities.48 This objective has been manifest throughout the U.S. Joint Forces Command’s staff, in which every directorate (training, experimentation, personnel, etc.) has a multinational element. Specifically, the ACT-Joint Forces Command link ensures “that NATO forces are jointly integrated and interoperable with all Alliance forces undergoing transformation.”49
For all the dire talk of the “drifting apart” of the Allies in military capability, NATO’s Allied Command Transformation stands out as a tangible example of the cementing and close synchronization of trans-Atlantic military relations and interoperability. NATO describes this link between the lead transformational commands of NATO and the United States as an “institutionalized unity of effort” producing a
“synergy” that benefits both commands and, ultimately, both the United States and
46 “Allied Command Transformation Fact Sheet.” Available at [www.nato.int/act]. 12 November 2003.
47 Ibid.
48 “NATO-U.S. Joint Forces Collaboration.” Available at
[http://www.act.nato.int/transfpmration/nato-us/nato_us%20index.htm]. 12 November 2003.
49 Ibid.
NATO as a whole.50 Time will tell to what extent the new Allied Command