The Comprehensive Political Guidance (CPG) provides an analysis of the strategic environment and a framework for all Alliance capability issues, planning discipline and intelligence for the next 10 to 15 years. It sets out the kinds of operations the Alliance must be able to perform and the kind of capabilities it will need.

It considers terrorism and the spread of weapons of mass destruction as likely to be the principal threats to the Alliance over this period.

Meeting immediate and potential challenges

To meet immediate and potential challenges, NATO continues to work on a broad and multifaceted set of activities: from long-term, broad strategic thinking down to practical planning involving military and civilian structural adjustments, personnel issues, equipment procurement and the development of new technologies.

It is taking a series of measures to:

• optimize operational capabilities, including through the NATO Response Force and the improvement of air and sealift capabilities;
• protect troops on the ground, for example, through information superiority and the Alliance Ground Surveillance system;
• review existing processes and structures to increase efficiency, including through reform of the defence planning process and streamlining of the military command structure;
• complement military efforts with civil emergency planning and consequence management initiatives;
• develop capabilities in new areas, such as cyber defence, missile defence and energy security.

NATO has also been focusing on means to fight terrorism and address the spread of weapons of mass destruction.

The multifaceted nature of terrorism is such that NATO has engaged in a number of initiatives – political, operational, conceptual, military and technological – to address this issue.

A primary aim of the Alliance is to prevent the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction or, should proliferation occur, to reverse it through diplomatic means. The Allies have taken a comprehensive set of practical initiatives to defend their populations, territory and forces against potential WMD threats.

Meeting immediate requirements

The range of operations and missions undertaken by the Alliance has highlighted a number of areas in which NATO requires new or improved capabilities.

The NATO Response Force

The NATO Response Force (NRF) is a joint, multinational force designed to respond rapidly to emerging crises across the full spectrum of Alliance missions, ranging from disaster relief or peacekeeping to high-intensity war-fighting. Made up of land, air, maritime and special forces components, it can commence deployment with as little as five days’ notice and sustain itself on operations for 30 days, or longer if re-supplied.

Improving air- and sealift capabilities

Strategic air-and sealift capabilities are vital to ensure NATO countries can deploy their forces and equipment quickly to wherever they are needed. NATO member countries have pooled their resources to acquire special aircraft and ships that will give the Alliance the capability to transport troops, equipment and supplies across the globe. 

Improving information superiority

Information superiority aims to ensure that information and situational awareness are more quickly available to member countries than to potential adversaries. By sharing information, data and intelligence reliably, securely and without delay during NATO-led operations, information superiority helps member countries achieve their desired ends with smaller forces.

At the Riga Summit in November 2006, Allied leaders agreed to support efforts to achieve information superiority. Key to these efforts is the implementation of a NATO Network-Enabled Capability, which aims to make all operational elements, from the strategic down to tactical levels, interoperable. The Alliance is also working to improve its maritime situational awareness and establish the airborne Alliance Ground Surveillance system.

Alliance Ground Surveillance

The Alliance Ground Surveillance (AGS) system is a key element of the Alliance's transformation and an essential enabling capability for the NATO Response Force (NRF) and other forces. The AGS will be an airborne, stand-off ground surveillance system that can detect and track vehicles, such as tanks, trucks or helicopters, moving on or near the ground, in all weather conditions.

Reviewing NATO’s defence planning process

A key aim of NATO’s defence planning process is to help member countries generate forces that can reach further and faster, yet still take on the full range of missions. Work is underway on NATO's defence planning process to make the process more flexible and comprehensive.

Streamlining the military command structure

NATO has streamlined its military command arrangements to provide a leaner, more efficient, effective and deployable command structure. The restructuring, launched in 2002, was based on agreed minimum military requirements for the Alliance’s command arrangements. It has resulted in a significant reduction in headquarters and Combined Air Operations Centres. More importantly, it reflects a fundamental shift in Alliance thinking.

In addition, a review of the peacetime establishment of the command structure is ongoing with the aim of examining the missions, roles and tasks of peacetime staffing of the structure in its present geographical distribution.

Civil emergency planning

The aim of Alliance civil emergency planning is to collect, analyze and share information on national planning activity to ensure the most effective use of civil resources for use during emergency situations, in accordance with Alliance objectives.

Close civil-military cooperation is key to ensuring the correct mix of capabilities in support of civil populations. NATO facilitates such cooperation through a range of civilian instruments and capabilities developed in the framework of its civil emergency planning activities.

Coordinated civil-military planning is becoming especially important in the context of NATO’s military support to stabilization and reconstruction in theatres of operations. Experience has shown that in many cases, peace can only be sustained through coordinated stabilization and reconstruction efforts. Support for such efforts is often an essential part of a mission, even while combat operations are still under way. In coordination with other international efforts, NATO is addressing the need to support stabilization and reconstruction in all phases of a crisis, starting with planning. Through NATO civil emergency planning instruments, military planners can also draw on civilian expertise, in areas such as critical infrastructure, transport, food, water, agriculture, communications, health and industry.

Countering potential threats

The Allies are also working to address potential challenges that may develop over the long term.

Missile defence

In response to the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and their delivery systems, including missiles of all ranges, NATO is pursuing projects aimed at protecting Alliance forces, territory and populations against missile threats.

Cyber defence

NATO is developing new measures to enhance the protection of its communication and information systems against attempts at disruption through attacks or illegal access. The Alliance is also prepared, on request, to assist allies in the event of grave cyber attacks against their national systems. These efforts form practical aspects of a new NATO policy on cyber defence.

Energy security

The disruption of the flow of vital resources could affect Alliance security interests. In a declaration at the Riga Summit in November 2006, Allied leaders confirmed their support for a coordinated, international effort to assess risks to energy infrastructure and to promote energy infrastructure security.

The development of capabilities over time 

Since 1999, NATO Allies have made firm commitments and taken a range of initiatives to strengthen capabilities in key areas.

The Defence Capabilities Initiative

Launched at the Washington Summit in April 1999, DCI identified a number of areas where improvements in Alliance capabilities were required. These areas fell into five major categories:

• Deployability and mobility: getting forces to the crisis quickly;
• Effective engagement: improving forces’ cutting edge capacity;
• Consultation, command and control: giving forces maximum awareness and control;
• Survivability: protecting forces;
• Sustainability and logistics: supporting forces in the field.

The DCI contributed to improvements in Alliance capabilities in quite a number of important areas. However, countries were not required to report individually on progress achieved and therefore advancement under the DCI was uneven.

The Weapons of Mass Destruction Initiative

The Weapons of Mass Destruction Initiative was launched, at the same time as DCI, to address the risk of proliferation of weapons of mass destruction by intensifying consultations on disarmament and non-proliferation issues. A WMD Centre was set up in May 2000 to coordinate activities in this field.

The Prague Capabilities Commitment

At their meeting in June 2002, NATO defence ministers agreed to refocus their efforts and decided that a new initiative should be based on firm country-specific commitments. This initiative would also be economically realistic, should encourage greater multinational cooperation and must be conducted in coordination with the European Union. At the 2002 Prague Summit, this initiative was formally endorsed and launched under the name of the Prague Capabilities Commitment (PCC).

The PCC was part of a three-pronged approach to improving defence capabilities, the two others were the creation of the NATO Response Force and the streamlining of the military command structure. Allies also adopted a Military Concept for Defence against Terrorism and initiated a new Missile Defence Feasibility Study.

Under the PCC, member countries made firm political commitments to improve capabilities in more than 400 specific areas, covering the following eight fields:

• chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear defence;
• intelligence, surveillance and target acquisition;
• air-to-ground surveillance;
• deployable and secure command, control and communications;
• combat effectiveness, including precision-guided munitions and suppression of enemy air defences;
• strategic air and sea lift;
• air-to-air refueling;
• deployable combat support and combat service support units.

Progress in each of the areas identified above was reviewed on a regular basis. In certain areas such as strategic sealift, strategic airlift and air-to-air refueling, NATO countries pooled their resources and multinational consortia with lead-nations were formed. In other areas, NATO members agreed to improve their capabilities individually.

The PCC was coordinated with the European Union’s efforts to improve its capabilities. A NATO-EU Capability Group was set up for this purpose under the so-called “Berlin Plus” arrangements and simple methods of ensuring that the two processes complemented each other were used, for instance, by having the same countries take the lead on the same capabilities in both organizations.

Further development of capabilities

At the Istanbul Summit in June 2004, NATO leaders endorsed further measures to improve the Alliance’s ability to take on operations whenever and wherever necessary. These included changes to the defence planning and force generation processes, and “usability” targets aimed at increasing the proportion of member countries’ forces that can be deployed and sustained in NATO-led operations.

It was agreed that the usability goals for ground forces was of 40 per cent deployability and eight per cent sustainability. This effectively meant that 40 per cent of ground forces can be deployed and eight per cent supported in overseas missions at any one time.

A set of practical measures to strengthen the Alliance’s contribution to the fight against terrorism and efforts to improve intelligence-sharing were also agreed.

The Comprehensive Political Guidance (CPG) was adopted in 2006 and at the Riga Summit in November of the same year, leaders inaugurated new initiatives. Among these were efforts to increase NATO’s information superiority in operational theatres and the endorsement of a Special Forces Initiative to increase the ability of special operations forces from member countries to train and operate together.

The bodies involved in decision-making

Efforts to improve NATO capabilities touch on a wide range of activities. As such, many different committees are involved in decision making for their specific areas of expertise. These include:

• the Conference of National Armaments Directors (CNAD), the senior NATO committee responsible for Alliance armaments co-operation, material standardization and defence procurement;
• The Senior NATO Logistics Conference (SNLC), which advises the North Atlantic Council, the Defence Planning Committee and the Military Committee on consumer logistics matters;
• The Executive Working Group (EWG) is made up of defence counsellors from NATO delegations and advises the North Atlantic Council on defence matters concerning member countries;
• the NATO Defence Review Committee, responsible for streamlining the Alliance’s defence planning process to assist in the transformation of NATO's military capabilities;
• the Senior Civil Emergency Planning Committee (SCEPC), the principal body in the area of civil emergency planning;
• the Military Committee, the senior military authority in NATO under the overall authority of the North Atlantic Council and the Defence Planning Committee;
• Allied Command Transformation (ACT), responsible for the transformation of NATO’s military capabilities;
• the NATO Consultation, Command and Control Board (NC3B); and
• the Senior Resource Board, which focuses on the management of military common-funded resources.