There are a variety of helicopter crew qualifications across the Alliance and a multitude of helicopter roles and missions. This fact makes it difficult for commanders from NATO helicopter units to select the best qualified crews to execute a mission. The aim of this document is to provide information regarding qualification standardization for deploying NATO helicopter crews in support of land operations.
‘As the Director of the Joint Air Power Competence Centre (JAPCC), it is my pleasure to introduce the 20th Edition of ‘The Journal of the JAPCC’. In this special edition, we celebrate the JAPCC’s 10th Anniversary by featuring articles reflecting on our past as the first NATO accredited Centre of Excellence and also looking forward to the future of Joint Air and Space Power’.
The 2014 Joint Air Power Competence Centre Conference was held between 18 and 20 November in Kleve, Germany. It explored the ideas and conclusions from the JAPCC Future Vector Project and debated where NATO air and space power should aim to develop to meet the challenges unfolding in the wake of operations in Afghanistan and the changing security environment that had developed during 2014.
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’.
In this Annual Report, you will find information on major JAPCC studies published on Air-to-Air Refuelling, Remotely Piloted Vehicles in Contested Environments, Joint Personnel Recovery, Enhancing support to Air Advisory Activities, the Single European Skies Project and, perhaps most significantly, on the Future Vector of Air Power in NATO.
The precise application of combat power from the air has been of strategic importance to the Alliance since NATO’s inception. Time and again, NATO and its Member Nations have turned to Joint Air Power as the first, and in some cases only, military response option.
‘Our Alliance now faces the increasingly dire risk of not having the right capabilities and / or sufficient quantities of air power and access to space capabilities to cope with the security challenges outlined in NATO’s forward looking Strategic Concept.’ – This is a quote from General Frank Gorenc, out of the foreword of the JAPCC study ‘Air and Space Power in NATO – Future Vector’. It refers to the lengthy run of defence cuts over the last decades and the diminishing Air and Space Power capabilities as a consequence.
This study provides a detailed assessment of current RPAS components’ limitations and vulnerabilities, addressing operational, technical and legal questions. It outlines a vision of possible future conflict scenarios and compares these predicted threats with current capabilities. The study focuses on Medium Altitude Long Endurance (MALE) and High Altitude Long Endurance (HALE) RPAS.
For more than fifteen years now, NATO has been actively pursuing efforts to improve the operational capabilities and competencies of the Alliance. Today, essential shortfalls still exist and the transatlantic capability gap has become even greater. Although this capability and competency gap in NATO is not new, it has become more apparent with the recent developments in the Ukraine and the changes in the relationship between Russia and NATO.
As we prepare for the future, it is critical that NATO and its nations capture the lessons identified from recent crisis response and combat operations. Turning these into lessons learned as we transition from NATO in operations to NATO prepared for operations is paramount. This transition combined with the on-going financial crisis makes it certain that investment in future Air Power capabilities will be under heavy scrutiny. It is thus critical for NATO and its nations to actively investigate, develop and promulgate their vision for Air and Space Power for the future.