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Briefing: Improving capabilities to meet new threats 8. Strategic lift Leased Antonov An-124s lift NATO forces as far as Afghanistan Contents   1. Introduction   2. Multinational CBRN defence battalion  3. Missile defence  4. Defence Capabilities Initiative  5. Implementing the Prague capabilities package  6. From Prague to Istanbul  7. Alliance Ground Surveillance  8. Strategic lift  9. NATO Response Force  10. New NATO command structure  11. Cooperation with Partners Editorial Note   Important publisher and editorial information about this document Other Formats English PDF (~929Kb) Printable version with colour illustrations Order a hardcopy version using the online order form. Strategic lift is important to transport significant forces over long distances. It will be substantially improved by the efforts of two consortia set up under the Alliance's Prague Capabilities Commitment, one covering airlift and the other sealift. The German-led airlift consortium includes Canada, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Hungary, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and Turkey. At Istanbul, defence ministers of these 15 countries signed a memorandum of understanding aiming to achieve an operational airlift capacity for outsize cargo for an on-call availability charter by 2005 using up to six An-124-100 transport aircraft. In addition, the defence ministers of Bulgaria and Romania signed a letter of intent to acquire this capability. Norway leads the Multinational Sealift Steering Committee, which includes Canada, Denmark, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and the United Kingdom. The sealift agreement signed by their defence ministers in Brussels in December 2003 is based on three components: ships available through assured access contracts; two ships on full-time charter from Denmark; and the residual capacity of four British ships. At the Istanbul Summit, the defence ministers of Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Romania and Slovenia signed a supplementary letter of intent on strategic sealift.

© NATO - OTAN 2004 -	NATO Public Diplomacy Division, 1110 Brussels, Belgium, web site: www.nato.int e-mail: natodoc@hq.nato.int