Four Allies announce plans to cooperate on one of NATO’s capability priorities
Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary and Slovenia on Wednesday (24 June 2015) signed a letter of intent on multinational cooperation in the area of special operations forces aviation. The letter of intent follows up on the promise made by Allied leaders at their Wales Summit to increase investments in meeting NATO‘s capability priorities.
Under the initiative the four Allies express their will and intent to investigate options for possible cooperation in support of the provision of their future special operations forces aviation units. It will cover a broad spectrum of aspects in the field of procurement, logistical support, joint training and education, and possible co-basing and multinational fleet arrangements.
The signature of the letter of intent by the four Defence Ministers ensures that the Allies involved will be able to capitalise on the greatest amount of synergies available. Following the same rationale, the letter of intent also captures the signatory nations’ intention to leverage the broad expertise of the NATO Special Operations Headquarters for a more efficient build-up of their capacities.
Special operations forces aviation constitutes an indispensible enabler for the employment of special forces in NATO missions, such as hybrid warfare scenarios. The availability of properly qualified aviation elements can make the difference between success and mission failure. The added capacities deriving from this effort will therefore have a direct impact in the high-risk stakes environment in which Special Forces units usually operate.
This high visibility initiative clearly provides tangible evidence that multinational cooperation mechanisms such as Smart Defence offer an attractive value proposition for Allies when developing solutions for their capability needs.