At NATO Annual Conference Brussels 14 April 2005

National case studies in military transformation Remarks by General Piatas, Chief of General Staff, Poland Transforming NATO – A Political and Military Challenge Secretary General, Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, my colleagues, admirals and generals. It is my great honour to share with you, such a distinguished audience, our experience in the Polish Armed Forces transformation process. I will follow on the subjects which you see on the slides. We acknowledge in Poland the need for the changes to our military on the turn(?) of eighties. Obviously at that time we didn't use word transformation. We were too modest, maybe. Let me draw your attention to a few reasons for the Polish transformation. First, the Cold War has ended, the new security environment influence the missions and the tasks of the Polish Armed Force. Second, this is a participation, that the Partnership for Peace Program and NATO membership enhanced our willingness to change our military. Third, this was the first development of new technologies. We have been working very hard to find the answer to the question how to prepare for tomorrow's battle, how to change our minds, our posture, our infrastructure, and how to improve mobility, deployability, and interoperability. I would like to emphasize several important Polish legal documents which paved the way for the changes of our military, especially security and defence strategy which established clear tasks for the Polish Armed Forces and the bill approved by the Parliament on the budget. From 2001 we're having stable budget, which I am very pleased. Also (inaudible) documents help us to build national programs for the new military. We started the changes from the reduction. For ten years we have reduced manpower significantly. In the same time, new quality of personnel was implemented. I like to emphasize this new quality of personnel and new requirements. We have to admit that we have experienced this process as the most painful during our transformation. We have increased the ratio of professional personnel up to 56 percent. We also change unfavourable in the past ratio between officers and NCOs. And today still in my country, the question of fully professional Armed Forces is one of the most advanced in the discussions. And we don't have so far clear answer. The significant amount of different kinds of obsolete weapons systems have been withdrawn. As you can see the percentage of number of weapon systems withdrawn is rather considerable. The number of garrisons have been reduced. Reduction of manpower. Infrastructure armament allow us to save about half a billion of U.S. dollars during two, three years. And dedicate this money for procurement of new weapon and the training. I have to stress the social aspects in the reduction and the impact of the local communities. First of all in the small towns. The rate of capital investment within the structure of the defence budget has been raising since 2001. We plan to develop more than 20 percent of the budget for the capital investment this year, and we will do this. We consider the current growth as a good prognosis for the future transformation. We have been determined to build the forces adequate to address to new challenges; mobile, sustainable, interoperable, but ready to fight at the beginning. Later, ready to do peacekeeping mission. I have to stress strongly that the lessons learned from the operations confirm the levels of our earliest decision to this respect. These are the main changes in our structure. Furthermore we have built new capabilities which have proven their usability, especially out of Poland. CIMIC, (inaudible), military police, mobile and medical and logistical supports. We almost cancelled in Poland units for territorial defence. New tasks, new missions, we require also new, more flexible training. We should prepare units for fast response and to act in a much more complex security environment. We have understood that taking first steps on the way to NATO, the importance of language skills, common criteria and common NATO procedures were the most important. Let me show you the number of troops participating in the different operations out of Poland. There is a significant increase from 2000/2001. From one hand this is a great challenge for us, but on the other it is a learning experience, significantly contributing to the transformation process. This is a driving will for changes in the Polish Armed Forces, and especially in the NATO Response Forces process of preparation. Let me draw your attention to operation in Iraq and Afghanistan, which are the most important for us, from which we have been drawing most valuable lessons. We are gathering an experience that couldn't be gained in any other way. The reality on the ground proved that the capability shortfalls earlier highlighted in the NATO defence planning process are, indeed, in the short supply and are critical to the success in these operations. We have learned how to put together and operate within a truly multinational forces, especially in Iraq where the interoperability is the key to the success. We experience the value of model communications and the capability for night and urban operations. We have also learned how important is the capability to engage with the local authorities and the local population and how to win not only the war, but also the peace. Proper care for our soldiers in missions area, and families at home, help us to build and to keep high morale of our troops during the missions. In my country we have launched numerous programs to procure modern weapons systems and equipment. The successful execution of those programs should facilitate our achievements and our efforts for the future. We are in a final stage of new categories of units, which are the most needed for us first time as a unique(?) experience with the CIMICs and the operational and military police. Now I will go to the most difficult and not fully solved problem. We perceive the integration of command control system as a key element. During this integration we should achieve a creation of interoperable data exchange, enabling us to have a common picture of the battle as a prerequisite of the precision strike capabilities. The work which has been already taken during these some years is demanding, is promising, but has not been finished. During the next few years we plan to take up another painful steps, that is decreased number of the land forces brigades, increase deployability, sustainability and significantly increase the number of fully professional units and other presences in the NATO Response Forces. We believe that in the course of five years the improvement within the selected priorities areas will be significant. Our transformation on the road we have come across many challenges. I will list only three, but of great importance. First, this is multi-dimensional aspects of reduction, which has affected not only the military, but also a part of the society. Second, this is necessity to build simultaneously was the reduction in a short period of time new categories of units and new capabilities. And these are legal aspects which in some cases influence the process of transformation. We have always appreciated the guiding role of the Alliance in this process. For explaining Prague Capability Commitments, NATO Response Forces and other Alliance initiatives help us significantly to stay in the mainstream of this process. For the first time in the history of my country we have embarked upon strategic defence review. We expect that this review will provide us with more clear vision of Armed Forces for the future. During strategic defence review we want to extend discussion on the future of the Polish Armed Forces to Polish citizens as well, and to receive their endorsement of our steps. I would like to stress that the most important challenge we have to overcome was to change the way of thinking and proceeding beneath to speed up building new capabilities. It was and it is still a mental revolution. Let me also share with you some other thoughts. Although we have done a lot, we understand that transformation is a process and so far achieved results are a good basis for further changes. We want to participate in the multinational program, like AGS, air-to-air refuelling, strategic airlift and others, because we understand that this way the goal is much easier achievable. Poland also supports selectively the idea of establishing the common NATO funding for operations. Secretary General, Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, I highly appreciate the possibility to participate in today's seminar, especially bearing in mind that this is for most of the afternoon. Thank you for your attention.