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Text: Adm. Gehman on NATO's Defense Capabilities
for the 21st Century
17 March 1999
The Supreme Allied Commander for the Atlantic is in a unique
position to evaluate new dangers that NATO faces, including
"the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, increases
in the lethality of terrorism," and "non-state sponsored adventurism."
Admiral Harold W. Gehman points out that the Alliance's recent
experiences in Bosnia demonstrate that NATO is well on its
way to moving from "a fixed, positional defense" to "flexible,
mobile operations." Whatever changes are made to NATO's Strategic
Concept, he says, three pillars must continue to support the
Alliance's fundamental base: common defense, nuclear deterrence,
and the transatlantic link. The following article by Gehman
is included in the March issue of the USIA electronic journal
"U.S. Foreign Policy Agenda," which addresses the topic, "NATO's
50th Anniversary."
TRANSFORMING NATO'S DEFENSE CAPABILITIES
FOR THE 21ST CENTURY
By Admiral Harold W. Gehman
Supreme Allied Commander, Atlantic
Introduction
The transatlantic relationship cemented by the Washington
Treaty of 1949 has been uniquely enduring, peaceful, and successful
in warding off common dangers, both external and, equally
important, internal. However, NATO's success has led to a
new era, one that is not characterized by a simple "us versus
them" scenario. Ethnic conflict, political instability, and
territorial disputes around the periphery of NATO's defended
territory are mounting. We face the proliferation of weapons
of mass destruction, increases in the lethality of terrorism,
non-state sponsored adventurism, and other asymmetric challenges.
These new dangers have forced us to reconsider the definitions
of peace, territorial integrity, and security -- concepts
that are the raison d'etre of the Alliance.
The Alliance has embraced the need for change in order to
remain as relevant in the future as it has been for the past
50 years. This evolution is demonstrated by NATO programs
like the Founding Act with Russia and the Partnership for
Peace (PfP) program, both of which are extending transparency
and dialogue east and south from the center of NATO. Likewise,
the Alliance is establishing solid relations with key organizations
that have capabilities that complement those of NATO, such
as the European Union (EU), the Western European Union (WEU),
and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe
(OSCE). The most visible of new NATO missions has been the
assumption of leadership of the multinational Implementation
Force (IFOR), followed by the Stabilization Force (SFOR).
NATO's experience in Bosnia has been a significant success
-- both in humanitarian and geopolitical terms -- but it also
demonstrated that the Alliance's transformation from a fixed,
positional defense to flexible, mobile operations is well
underway. Other significant changes focus on organization,
technology, and doctrine to ensure that NATO military forces
can serve as an effective crisis management tool wherever
the collective interests of members are threatened.
NATO's Legacy
Given the peaceful demise of its former adversary, NATO is
arguably the most successful alliance in history. NATO members
enjoy unprecedented freedom, prosperity, and security. Although
mutual defense obligations lie at the heart of the Alliance,
the psychological impact on the political and economic evolution
of Europe may turn out to be its most important function.
Under the umbrella of NATO, Western European economies were
built anew, as were the organs of civil society and stable
political parties. Today's EU and the revitalized WEU are
products of the trust, confidence, and sense of community
developed within the Alliance.
The security provided by NATO created a climate that energized
Europeans to work, save, and invest until they created for
themselves a prosperity they had never before enjoyed. In
the years after World War II, North America gave much to Europe
in economic aid and military protection and has received a
lot in return. Europe's renewed affluence provided markets,
goods, and capital that fed North America's continued economic
growth. Europe is now North America's most important trading
partner. This year's launch of the euro is a significant milestone
in the development of a strong and unified European economy
and will significantly increase trade across the Atlantic.
These remarkable economic developments are a direct result
of 50 years of stability provided by NATO.
The Alliance has also provided a rationale for maintaining
robust military forces in peacetime. During the Cold War,
the NATO force planning process encouraged nations to maintain
sufficient force structure to permit a strategy of flexible
response. While all NATO nations have decreased the size of
their armed forces since the end of the Cold War, the NATO
force planning process has served to check the rush to disarmament.
The Alliance provides nations a valuable structure to examine
the future security environment and to develop new strategies
and capabilities.
Practical Guidance for NATO's Military Authorities
The past 10 years have been a period of unprecedented change
within NATO. The 1991 version of NATO's Strategic Concept
expanded the definition of security and set the stage for
NATO operations in Bosnia. The current challenge for Alliance
members is to create a new Strategic Concept that provides
visionary, yet practical, guidance to NATO military authorities.
In order for the next Strategic Concept to guide us into the
21st century, it must reflect changes that the Alliance has
undergone as well as allow for changes yet to be encountered.
The revised Strategic Concept must also provide useful guidance
for the military, so that a military officer like myself can
develop contingency plans, establish force goals, and design
realistic training exercises -- in other words to accomplish
everything that is expected of a military force.
Transforming NATO Defense Capabilities
In April of this year, NATO heads of state will mark the
50th anniversary of the Alliance. In addition to commemorating
the past, the Washington Summit presents a unique opportunity
to focus on transforming NATO's defense capabilities for the
next 50 years. I am convinced that NATO needs a more systematic
and methodical process to develop the military capabilities
that will be required by the Strategic Concept. Before discussing
these changes let me emphasize that the three pillars of the
Alliance -- common defense, nuclear deterrence, and the transatlantic
link -- are and must remain the underpinnings of our efforts.
They represent the core policies that made our Alliance so
successful in the past and are critical for our success in
the future.
Experts often disagree on the nature of the future security
environment and on which military capabilities and war-fighting
concepts will be required. After all, the future is hard to
predict. My crystal ball is not any better than anyone else's,
so I don't put my faith in any one scenario for the future.
Instead, I want to ensure that we have a systematic transformation
process. I believe this process should include a common operational
vision to describe how NATO commanders will employ future
military capabilities. Such a vision will provide a template
that NATO force planners can use to optimize force structure
and decide how the Alliance can best exploit new technology.
Even with a common operational vision, NATO force planners
will have a number of competing investment strategies from
which to choose. We must prioritize, coordinate, and integrate
our efforts to ensure that what the Strategic Concept states
will result in actions that improve our national and Alliance
defense capabilities. We should experiment to determine which
strategies are most likely to provide the greatest increase
in defense capability. Experimentation can also help us solve
technical, organizational, and doctrinal problems and hedge
against nasty surprises from potential adversaries (especially
of the asymmetric variety). Experimentation may take the form
of seminars, war games, command exercises, or field exercises
depending on the subject.
Our experience in Bosnia and in recent Combined Joint Task
Force (CJTF) exercises indicates that the most immediate focus
of our transformation process should be in the area of communications
and logistics. We must improve the speed and effectiveness
of command through more compatible, interoperable, and integrated
command-and-control systems. This will improve our ability
to exploit future commercial and military technological developments.
We have learned that Cold War logistics systems are not up
to the task of supporting NATO forces that are deployed beyond
traditional operating areas. We must have the ability to quickly
locate and move assets and the ability to perform multinational
logistics operations.
Allied Command Atlantic and the Transatlantic Link
Throughout NATO's history, the transatlantic link has referred
to the political, economic, and military ties between North
America and Europe. Allied Command Atlantic (ACLANT), headquartered
in Norfolk, Virginia, represents the western pillar of the
transatlantic link. ACLANT was created to ensure that military
forces and supplies could flow from North America to assist
in the defense of Europe. In the event of hostilities during
the Cold War, ACLANT's primary mission was to conduct anti-submarine
and anti-surface ship operations and to challenge the Warsaw
Pact by creating a second front on NATO's northern flank.
Traditional defensive operations, known in NATO as Article
5 operations, are at the heart of the Atlantic Alliance and
remain ACLANT's primary mission; however, the changing security
environment provides an opportunity to use ACLANT's maritime
expertise in new ways.
Today ACLANT is at the forefront of planning and conducting
sea-based combined and joint operations designed to employ
the full spectrum of military capabilities from different
military services -- capabilities that will provide the means
to deal with crises on the periphery of NATO's defended territory.
These efforts benefit from having a maritime officer's approach
to war-fighting, which includes an appreciation for flexibility,
speed of information, mobility, self-sustainment, and integrated
logistics. The development of progressive issues such as CJTF,
PfP, European Security and Defense Identity (ESDI) within
NATO, and counter-proliferation will be vital to the Alliance
in the future and are given the highest priority. Solving
interoperability problems and learning to exploit new technology
are major focus areas.
The character of the ACLANT staff has changed greatly to
meet these new challenges. The staff has representatives from
all the services. Exercises and operations are planned to
combine the capabilities from different military services
to create an effect that is greater than the sum of the parts.
New Mission for Maritime Forces -- The CJTF Concept
The new security environment increases the likelihood that
NATO military forces will be required to conduct operations
around the periphery of NATO's defended territory. The CJTF
concept provides a framework for organizing forces for missions
beyond NATO's network of fixed headquarters. NATO envisions
a CJTF as an ad hoc organization built from an existing headquarters
to perform a specific mission. Sufficient equipment, personnel,
logistics support, and related assets are assembled to conduct
the operation and are dissolved when the operation is complete.
In March 1998, ACLANT conducted the first major trial of
a NATO sea-based CJTF headquarters. Exercise "Strong Resolve
Crisis South" was part of an exercise employing more than
50,000 personnel. The sea-based CJTF headquarters was formed
from the headquarters of Commander Striking Fleet Atlantic
onboard the command ship, USS Mount Whitney. The CJTF commander
was tasked to prepare for a peace-support operation in a fictional
country.
The trial demonstrated the advantages of a sea-based CJTF
headquarters with the speed and flexibility to reach all likely
areas of conflict. A sea-based headquarters must be logistically
self-sufficient for extended periods and may be the only option
in a contingency operation in certain geographical areas which
are difficult to reach, have no host nation support, or where
the situation is too volatile to risk establishing a headquarters
on land.
Trials have shown that the CJTF concept is viable and that
the land- and sea-based CJTF headquarters have proven capable
of dealing with the challenges of assigned missions. The next
phase of the concept will concentrate on staff analysis of
the trial evaluation results, lessons learned from operations
in Bosnia, and additional study. The outlook is encouraging
and both major NATO commanders (the Supreme Allied Commanders
for the Atlantic and for Europe) look forward to implementing
fully the CJTF concept into the Alliance Command Structure.
European Security and Defense Identity
A significant outcome of the 1997 Madrid Summit was the reaffirmation
of NATO's commitment to a strong, dynamic partnership between
the European and North American member nations. This commitment
centers on the vitality of the transatlantic link. For NATO's
first 50 years, this link was primarily one-way in nature
with support flowing from North America into Europe. With
the Berlin Summit came the declaration that NATO would begin
to build a European Security and Defense Identity (ESDI) that
would develop a more balanced partnership between North America
and Europe. Creation of an ESDI calls for force elements separable,
but not separate, from the NATO force structure that could
be made available for use under the political direction and
strategic control of the WEU.
The essential elements for building a viable ESDI include
making NATO assets available for WEU operations, adaptation
of the CJTF concept to WEU-led operations, and commitment
to transparency between NATO and WEU in crisis management.
ACLANT has been developing a concept for a European Multinational
Maritime Force (EMMF) to begin to address the issue of maritime
support to ESDI. The EMMF concept seeks to capitalize on NATO's
strengths -- the existing trained multinational forces, our
common doctrine, our practiced exercise structure, and our
mature command-and-control organization.
Partnership for Peace
The introduction of the PfP initiative in 1994 added a new
dimension to the relationship between NATO and its Partner
countries. Together with the special relationships that are
being developed between the Alliance and Russia, and the Alliance
and Ukraine, PfP is helping to set the stage for new enhanced
security arrangements in Europe. PfP aims at enhancing peacekeeping
abilities and interoperability of Partner countries' military
forces with those of NATO through joint planning, training,
and exercises. It also facilitates transparency in the defense
planning and budgeting process and promotes democratic control
of defense forces.
ACLANT sponsors an extensive series of maritime-related military
exercises and other training activities ranging from language
training to workshops on strengthening the roles of non-commissioned
officers. A number of Partner countries have officers serving
at ACLANT headquarters, and we are looking forward to an exchange
of officers with Russia, perhaps in the next year.
Conclusion
For 50 years the Atlantic Alliance has provided the security
and stability that have underpinned the peace and prosperity
that members enjoy today. The 1991 Strategic Concept began
a transformation of the Alliance and its military forces that
continues apace. Transforming NATO defense capabilities is
a daunting challenge since it involves a complex reallocation
of resources and significant work to implement new organizational
structures. Because our energies are no longer focused on
winning the Battle of the Atlantic, ACLANT now concentrates
on redefining the transatlantic link to include new ideas,
concepts, doctrine, and technology in addition to providing
North American military power to the Alliance.
During this transition period, the Atlantic Command will
serve as a flexible and innovative center of excellence --
one that identifies ideas and proposes solutions to keep NATO
the military organization of choice for the next 50 years.
I am encouraged by our progress thus far, and I believe NATO
will enter the 21st century on a successful and positive note.
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