- 5th Generation Aviation
Combat Air
Combat Air (CA) is the heart of Joint Air Power. NATO’s ability to deter and defend relies on the freedom of manoeuvre throughout all domains. CA contributes to that freedom by providing Air Superiority, Suppression of Enemy Air Defences, Air Interdiction, Electromagnetic Operations, Close Air Support, Integrated Air and Missile Defence, NATO Ballistic Missile Defence, and Personnel Recovery. This Branch incorporates manned and unmanned platforms, with fixed and rotary-wing aircraft, and draws from all components within Alliance air and space forces.
Featured Publications
Autonomous Collaborative Platforms
A Strategic Roadmap for Allied Air Power
The Strategic Imperative: NATO’s historical reliance on high-value, exquisite, and numerically constrained crewed platforms is increasingly challenged by sophisticated Anti-Access/Area Denial (A2AD) networks. To maintain credible deterrence and operational freedom of manoeuvre in the future operating [...]
Why NATO Needs a Federated EW Cloud Architecture
By Lt Col
Athanasios
Sdrakas
The modern electromagnetic spectrum (EMS) is dynamic and can be denied, degraded, or disrupted without warning. A growing gap exists between NATO’s ability to fuse, disseminate, and exploit electromagnetic information and the demands of a [...]
Rebalancing Combat Aviation Training
Integrating Synthetic Environments for Multi-Domain Readiness
By Lt Col
Antonio
Gutierrez
Combat pilots have always preferred to fly, and throughout history that preference has shaped how militaries train. However, for the past several decades, simulator training has supplemented live flight hours. As synthetic environments grow in [...]
