Publications | Joint Air Power Competence Centre

Reshaping Close Support

The aim of this report is to show how ‘close support’ mission operations in the future may be drastically different than what the Alliance has conducted over the last 30 years. It addresses potential shortfalls in available assets resulting in close support coverage limitations. It also portrays the potential challenges of providing close support to troops in areas that are highly contested. The report references emerging and future joint military technologies and weapon systems to help solve both coverage gap and contested environment challenges. It concludes with considerations for Alliance transformation at the strategic, operational, and tactical levels.

Joint Air & Space Power Conference 2020 Read Ahead

This read ahead material represents the largest ever submission of articles from air and space power experts worldwide to a JAPCC publication. Many of these have been specially written for this year’s Joint Air and Space Power Conference. As you read and critically appraise the articles, you will want to make notes and (perhaps furiously!) underline and highlight those parts that you take issue with. Please do this! I well remember a professor who exhorted her students (myself included) to personalise their set texts by scribbling notes in every available blank space. Her assertion was that, only by doing this, could we engage sufficiently with the material and make it our own.

Annual Report 2019

This edition of the Annual Report summarizes what was a busy 2019 and provides a glimpse into the work JAPCC will be engaged in across the Air and Space domains for 2020.

Proceedings 2019

The JAPCC Conference, held in Essen, Germany from 8–10 October 2019, concerned itself with Multi-Domain Operations (MDO). This paper aims to capture key messages from the conference. Rather than producing a chronological record of these discussions, it will introduce them thematically. There were several recurring key themes across the two days of the conference. These key themes were clearly ones which concerned and engaged the 344 attendees of this 2019 JAPCC Conference.

Journal 29

It is our pleasure to present this 29th edition of the JAPCC Journal, Transforming Joint Air and Space Power. This offering opens with an assessment by the JAPCC Director and Commander, Allied Air Command, General Jeff Harrigian, of what he considers the three main elements of Multi-Domain Operations and how the relevant evolution of Command and Control will shape our future. It is immediately followed by an interview with the Chief of Staff of the Italian Air Force, General Alberto Rosso, who offers us great insights into the challenges facing the Italian Air Force, its priorities, and where Italy is leading the way in next generation evolution and integration.

A Comprehensive Approach to Countering Unmanned Aircraft Systems

A sole focus on the low, slow, and small end of the C-UAS spectrum covers only a fraction of current UAS technology and excludes most military applications. Peer competitors to NATO can be expected to employ UAS at the same level of technology, and under comparable operational principles, as in the Alliance. Consequently, NATO has to anticipate enemy use of UAS in the same mission sets as with friendly UAS, covering the spectrum from Intelligence, Surveillance & Reconnaissance to unmanned airstrikes, conducted in Line of Sight as well as Beyond Line of Sight operations, utilizing the electromagnetic spectrum and the space domain in the same way as NATO.

Command and Control of a Multinational Space Surveillance and Tracking Network

This white paper aims at providing a reasoned compendium about SST and multinational SST networks. In particular, it addresses the analysis of several architectural solutions for SST networks to identify and evaluate applicable C2 models. The document starts with a knowledge base about SST and its contribution to SSA. It defines the relevant terms of reference and describes its applications, both for civil and military purposes. It also illustrates the architecture of a generic SST system and provides several examples of existing national and multinational SST endeavours, with particular reference to the European Union (EU) SST framework. Finally, it provides a NATO perspective on emerging multinational SST endeavours, providing advice on why and how NATO should try to promote such agreements.

Journal 28

We have a variety of articles in this edition that will whet your appetite and we start off with an interview with the Romanian Air Chief Major General Pană, who offers us great insights into the changes of the past 15 years, since the Romanian Air Force joined NATO and the challenges lying ahead with the rapidly shifting and evolving requirements for a successful and reputable Air Force.

Joint Air & Space Power Conference 2019 Read Ahead

Esteemed Colleagues,

It is my privilege and pleasure to serve as your moderator for this year’s JAPCC Conference.

As in previous years, the panels for this conference follow a logical progression. Panel one has the clear task of establishing a working definition of what we actually mean by the term ‘Multi-Domain Operations’ (MDO). It would not be too dramatic to say that the rest of this conference (and, certainly, the remaining three panels) depends on the outcome of panel one. Therefore, panel one members have what is perhaps the most onerous task.

The Implications for Force Protection Practitioners of Having to Counter Unmanned Systems

The subject of Counter-Unmanned Air Systems (C-UAS) has become what can best be described as a ‘hot-topic’, not just for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) but, globally. The primary question that this think-piece seeks to explore is whether this challenge is new and unique or, whether it is actually just one of many threats that NATO faces that can be addressed with a little intellectual effort and with existing technology or, novel use of existing technology?