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Air Operations
The air environment is unique. Air surrounds the globe and overlays the land and sea. Consequently, air power is inherently joint, as air power has decisive impact when orchestrated along with land, maritime, space and cyberspace power.4 Air power is also pervasive, as aircraft are rarely physically constrained by national boundaries or terrain, so can potentially obtain access to any point on Earth. The distinctiveness of the environment means that air power has very different attributes to maritime power and land power. Consequently properly executed joint operations, where air, land, sea, space and cyber capabilities are used to complement one another’s strengths and weaknesses, can be particularly effective.
(Allied Joint Doctrine for Air and Space Operations, AJP-3.3 Ed.B, Apr. 2016)
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While the current Force Planning methodology in NATO is highly consistent and stringent, one significant weakness is the system completely depends on the nations to quickly provide sufficient capability to respond to rapidly emerging challenges, [...]
A400M: Europe’s Interoperability Poster Child?
A Heavily Critiqued European Program Leads the Way for Allied Interoperability and Crisis Response Capability
Air-to-Air Refuelling (AAR) has quickly surfaced on the lists of many Nations and multilateral organisations as a major defence capability area needing attention. In 2011, the European Defence Agency (EDA), under the authority of the [...]
Optical Data Links for Aerial Applications
Promising Technology for Future RPA Operations
Optical fibres move tens of terabits of data every second between cities and across oceans. But for the majority of Earth’s surface, where running fibre is impractical physically or financially, communication satellites in space provide [...]
Future Unmanned System Technologies
Legal and Ethical Implications of Increasing Automation
The number of unmanned systems in NATO nations’ military inventories has grown rapidly and is still increasing throughout all domains. Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) currently represent the largest share of those systems. At the same [...]
Nimble Titan
Ballistic Missile Defence in a Regional, Cross-Regional and Global Environment
Since the beginning of armed conflicts, weapons have been used to gain advantage on the battlefield. The chronological and developmental successor of arrows, catapults, and cannons, Ballistic Missiles (BM) entered the battlefield in 1944 and [...]
NATO / Multinational Joint Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Unit
A Feasibility Study
NATO military commanders and Alliance Leaders have consistently identified gaps in NATO’s Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) capability and capacity including the entailed Processing, Exploitation and Dissemination (PED) processes. Exercises such as Unified Vision have begun [...]
Standardization of Qualifications for NATO Helicopter Crews in Support of Land Operations
The Joint Air Power Competence Centre (JAPCC) conducted a study in 2012 examining the vertical lift capability of the majority of European NATO member states. The Study, etc.). However, problems related to standardization of qualifications [...]
Be Advised, Training in Progress
Operational-Level Air-to-Air Refuelling Planning Course Begins to Meet a NATO Need
Not every useful skill is readiliy visible. That is why the 15 Specialized Heavy Air Refuelling Course (SHARC) Course-0 and the 12 Course-1 graduates do not appear different, but they are! After two busy weeks [...]
Doing the Same with Less
Potential Synergies for NATO Air Power
While the fight against DAESH is conducted through a ‘Coalition of the Willing’, there are no ongoing large-scale NATO-led operations. Additionally, though the exact outcome of the Ukraine crisis is still unknown, the recent temporary [...]
Platform Autonomy
State-of-the-Art and Future Perspectives from an S&T Point of View
The Applied Vehicle Technology Panel (AVT) is an international network of defence scientists and engineers dedicated to increasing the performance of new and ageing vehicles in the air, sea, land, and space domains. This network [...]
The Multinational Aviation Training Centre (MATC)
Sharing Expert Capabilities and Experience
One of the results of conducting years of combat operations in Afghanistan is improved interoperability across the NATO nations. Despite this, it has been noted in numerous JAPCC studies that there is still a lot [...]
Future Considerations of BMC2
BMC2 Must Be Both Horizontally and Vertically Integrated to Maximize Information Exchange and Fusion
Air Power is dependent on its ability to utilize speed, range, flexibility, precision, tempo and lethality in order to achieve successful effects at the strategic, operational, and tactical levels of warfare. History has shown the [...]
Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems in Contested Environments
A Vulnerability Analysis
Over the past two decades, Remotely Piloted Aircraft System(s) (RPAS) have been fielded in increasing numbers across many nations and military services. RPAS provide distinctive capabilities for the Joint Force Commander (JFC) with reduced risk [...]
Forward MEDEVAC Challenges
The Italian Army Implementation Programme
Current military operations have shown that medical support is a fundamental capability for an expeditionary military force. This operational requirement has been emphasised in theatres such as Afghanistan, where local medical facilities have been completely [...]
The Extended Air Defence Task Force
From Task Force to Competence Centre
The Extended Air Defence Task Force (EADTF), comprising Germany, The Netherlands and the United States, was formally established on the 3rd December 1999 in Burbach, Germany. The principal reason for the formation of the EADTF [...]
Double Counting or Counting Double?
The Future of NATO’s Tanker Transport Fleet
NATO nations are in the process of a much needed modernisation of their Air Transport (AT) and Air-to-Air Refuelling (AAR) fleets, and in many cases, are choosing airframes that can perform both missions. For strategic [...]
New Technologies
Fire, Wheel, Steam Engine and … Nanotechnology
“A number of significant technology-related trends – including the development of laser weapons, electronic warfare and technologies that impede access to space – appear poised to have major global effects that will impact on NATO [...]
Enhancing NATO’s Operational Helicopter Capability
The recent Iraq and Afghanistan campaigns have highlighted the unique capabilities helicopters have contributed to the asymmetric environment. However, whilst playing a decisive part in successful operations, it has become increasingly clear to commanders that [...]
Personnel Recovery
That Others May Live to Return with Honour
Throughout history, armies traditionally fought the wars whilst government officials, explorers and tourists travelled and worked all over the globe. During war, travel or exploration, individuals may have become isolated from their group, or the [...]
NATO Air and Space Power in Counter-IED Operations
Publication of JAPCC Primer
In recent years, Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) have increasingly become a feature of modern conflict, their ease of production using locally-available materials and deployment via support networks providing adversaries, unable to compete on conventional terms, [...]
