In 2016 NATO & EU leaders signed a Joint Declaration officially mandating greater inter-organisational cooperation. Under strategic guidance to develop ‘coherent, complementary & interoperable defence capabilities’,1 AAR action officers at the strategic levels of both organisation aligned their roadmaps …
The Joint Air Power Competence Centre (JAPCC) welcomes you to attend our 2015 Air and Space Power Conference in Essen, Germany from 23 – 25 November. The theme of this year’s conference is: ‘Air Power and Strategic Communications – NATO Challenges for the Future’.
Currently, NATO lacks a common understanding or consistent use of the term ‘NATO Space Operations’. Today, discussions about NATO Space Operations are commonly reduced to purely focusing on the Space segment and often neglect the ground, user and link segments.
To overcome current limitations of Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS), more and more automatic functions have been and will be implemented in current and future UAS systems. In the civil arena, the use of highly automated robotic systems is already quite common, e.g. in the manufacturing sector. But what is commonly accepted in the civilian community may be a significant challenge when applied to military weapon systems.
“Leadership is action, not position.“ When dealing with the word, term, perception or idea of ‘competence’, a cardinal problem and inevitable debate enter the stage: “What precisely is competence?” “What do you understand by competence?”
s the current conflict in Afghanistan has evolved over the past decade, so has the joint application of firepower and associated weapons systems. Today, at the heart of Joint Fires, hundreds of Forward Air Controllers / Joint Terminal Attack Controllers (FAC / JTACs) are supporting land commanders and troops across the ISAF theatre of operations with their air, Joint Fires and CAS expertise. Joint Fires Observers (JFOs), also supporting the fight in Afghanistan, are considered to be a significant force multiplier and of great value to the coalition in the Joint Fires community.
NATO depends greatly on space capabilities to achieve its political aims. While the Alliance has yet to fully come to grips with the implications of its reliance on space capabilities, there are signs pointing to improved orchestration, defence and employment of NATO space capabilities. The most important of these could be efforts to formalise the NATO Space Integrated Project Team (IPT) led by Allied Command Transformation.
A task force of nine NATO nations and Australia (BLUE) battled a combination of terrorists, pirates and affiliated third parties (RED) during the world’s premier space and cyberspace wargame conducted by U.S. Air Force Space Command and hosted by the U.S. Air Force Warfare Center. Set in 2023, Schriever Wargame 2012 International (SW 12 International) offered NATO an unprecedented opportunity to explore combined space operations within a NATO construct.
Logistics is of vital importance to any military operation. Without it, operations cannot be carried out or sustained. Most operations start at home base and use a combination of strategic, operational and tactical movement to move forward into the Area of Operations (AOO). The greater the scope and the size of the operation, theoretically, the greater the reliance on Movement and Transportation (M&T) and logistics resources for deployment, sustainment and redeployment. The Logistics effort for Operation Unified Protector (OUP) appeared to succeed, but has NATO missed an opportunity?
Employing Air and Space power is founded on the ability to build up a strong awareness of the environment and of all related human limits; this is the only way to reach a full consciousness and a correct comprehensive approach. This is especially true for Space Power which is still seen as far away from daily life.