Smart Defence: What does it mean?
What is Smart Defence?
Smart Defence is a new way of looking at how we can
as an Alliance develop better capabilities at an affordable cost.
Multinational cooperation is at the heart of Smart Defence.
These are the main components of the Smart Defence agenda:
multinational cooperation, specialisation
and prioritisation of our defence spending.
What stage are we at with Smart Defence?
It's learning by doing, Smart Defence,
through a range of very concrete, practical projects
that are currently being discussed by nations.
And we have said that we will have a first batch of about 25 projects
that groups of nations will be ready to lead,
starting at the Chicago Summit.
So, these projects provide really the practical, pragmatic foundation
of the Smart Defence agenda. We see the Chicago Summit really
the start of Smart Defence, rather than an end point.
Can you give examples of Smart Defence projects?
For instance there is a project led by Italy
to acquire, with a group of nations,
new capabilities to clear roads from roadside bombs
and other improvised explosive devices.
That is an important lesson learnt from Afghanistan.
So we want to use state of the art technology to do just that,
with a group of nations. So, that is one example of a new capability.
We also have projects that deal with logistics and maintenance.
Optimising the maintenance of helicopters, for instance,
when they are deployed, like in Afghanistan,
rather than organising this at national level.
How can Smart Defence help improve existing forces?
Each and every nation has its own tradition, its own military culture,
but also its own defence industry, its own strengths.
Some nations are more oriented towards the maritime domain,
others have more focus on land forces, and so on.
But we have a project led by Germany on pooling and sharing
of maritime patrol aircrafts. This is a shortfall area in the Alliance.
Several nations do have those capabilities on an individual basis,
but by putting them together you have a more interesting batch
of capabilities, or more important capability
and more flexibility in using those capabilities.
What is the role of NATO nations?
It's important to understand that NATO itself
does not buy capabilities itself. There are some exceptions to that,
but in general the capabilities are provided by the nations.
So, the initial phase of our Smart Defence approach was
almost completely focused on getting national buy-in,
to better understand what nations expect from Smart Defence initiative.
There is a very strong focus on building it bottom-up.
On the other hand, we don't want this to become,
and nations do not want this to become,
an exercise in coalitions of the willing,
with small groups of nations who do different things together
without any form of coordination. What NATO tries to do,
is to provide this overall framework.
What guarantee is there that pooled resources will be shared?
It will be difficult to have a 100 per cent solution to that, because,
at the end of the day, nations will always have their say
on the capabilities that they own.
They own either as a national or as a multinational capability.
But what kind of incentives can we provide the nations
to make those capabilities available? What kind of flexible mechanisms
can we put in place to enhance
the availability of those critical, enabling capabilities?
What role does industry play in Smart Defence?
We see industry as a key partner in Smart Defence initiative.
The industry is confronted with a decline in defence budgets
throughout Europe and the market is shrinking.
And I think the industry will also see that through NATO
they can approach groups of nations,
rather than going to those nations individually.
That is certainly an advantage that the industry will recognise
in the Smart Defence initiative.
Why will Smart Defence work this time?
I think because the conditions are different.
There is clearly the economic crisis. That is...
That can be seen as an impetus for working together more intensively,
more than was the case in the past. National budgets are reduced.
All our operations are multinational in nature.
Our soldiers are deployed in multinational units.
It makes no sense really to develop capabilities at a national level.
It's one thing buying the capabilities, it's another thing using them
and connecting the capabilities of the allied forces.
So, I think both from the economic perspective,
from the operational perspective as well,
this is no longer a policy option. It's a sheer necessity.