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| Updated: 23-Oct-2006 | NATO Speeches |
NATO, 20 Oct. 2006 |
Interview with Assistant Secretary General
for Defence Investment,
INTERVIEWER: We are speaking today to the Assistant Secretary General for Defence Investment at NATO Headquarters, Mr. Marshall Billingslea. Welcome Mr. Billingslea. Thank you for taking time to talk to us today. My first question is : what is the role of your division? MARSHALL BILLINGSLEA (Assistant Secretary General for Defence Investment at NATO Headquarters): Well my division is one of several in NATO. We are responsible for providing much of the support that NATO militaries need and which the Alliance needs to conduct the kinds of operations that we are engaged in today. We provide armaments and technological support, the development of different kinds of weapons systems, of sensor platforms. We provide all of the C3 support to NATO; so all of the command, the control, the communications, the way that militaries talk to each other and the way commanders talk to their troops in the field. We're responsible for that. We provide some of the intelligence support to the Alliance from the intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance standpoint, the different kinds of aircraft and other collection assets that we have to help our people in the field understand the threats they face. These are the kinds of areas that we are principally involved in. INTERVIEWER: In recent months there's been a lot of discussion about strategic lift aircraft. What is strategic lift and what will it mean to NATO to possess it? BILLINGSLEA: Well for NATO to possess the capability it means a lot and indeed already certain NATO nations have a degree of this capability. When you say strategic lift, what you mean is the ability to take people and equipment long distances and you can do this by sea or you can do it by air. One of the things that I think we'll see at the Riga Summit is in fact a good look at all of what has been accomplished in the area of strategic lift. We have, for instance, under Norwegian leadership, a strategic sea lift capability; a number of these roll-on/roll-off naval vessels that are available on call to transport equipment. And we have two major initiatives within NATO to ensure that on the airlift side we have the big planes that can carry the big equipment the long distances. So we have the so-called SALIS Agreement, which is to charter Antonov commercial aircraft to fly this kind of equipment. And we have a very exciting new initiative to procure some C-17 aircraft and to create a NATO strategic airlift capability that we're very excited about. INTERVIEWER: A contract for missile defence was recently signed for NATO's active-layered theatre ballistic missile defence program. Can you tell me what the acquisition of a missile defence system will mean for NATO? BILLINGSLEA: Well it will mean quite a lot and I think you have to step back and look at the recent events in the world, look at what was happening over the summer with this mounting crisis with Iran, nuclear concerns there; North Korea perhaps having conducted a nuclear test; flight testing of ballistic missiles of all kinds of ranges by those countries. The threat of ballistic missiles is something that worries us greatly, especially as it would apply to our deployed forces. So NATO has been working very hard and is actually having some good success in developing theatre missile defences to help protect our troops in the field from the threat of this attack. INTERVIEWER: Defence Investment division is leading a program aimed at developing new technologies to counteract terrorist threats in certain countries. For example, the improvised explosive devices that pose a deadly threat to NATO troops in Afghanistan. Can you tell me what progress has been achieved in this program? BILLINGSLEA: The program has got 10 elements and in fact I think as you focus on these different areas, the airlift, the missile defence, the counter-terrorism technology work we're doing, what you see and what we plan to in fact explain in full at Riga, is that the Alliance is very much involved in putting together the different capabilities needed so that we are able to conduct expeditionary operations. We believe that terrorism and proliferation are the principle threats that the Alliance is going to face for the next 10 to 15 years and so we are going to need a new kind of set of capabilities to deal with these threats. So things like strategic airlift to deploy forces long distances; better co-operation and integration of NATO Special Operations Forces; making sure those forces have the counter-terrorism technologies that you just mentioned; that they're protected from ballistic missile attack. All of this fits together in terms of NATO moving into an operational role, moving onto an operational footing and needing a different kind of... different sets of capabilities. On the counter-terrorism field, these 10 different areas, each one led by a lead nation. Spain leads the effort to protect us from these homemade suicide bombers, improvised explosives and that's a good example of where we've had real significant success. We are deploying, as a result of the program, a number of systems in Afghanistan, NATO systems; we are investing in some very unique capabilities in Estonia and Spain that have the potential to detect and to interfere with the functioning of the devices and so on and so forth. A lot of doctrine is being developed here; the partnership and the fundamental role of Allied Command Transformation and Allied Command Operations working with us has really been wonderful. A lot of good progress. In the end, it's all about trying to protect our soldiers in the field from these kinds of attacks. INTERVIEWER: Absolutely. My last question to you is about the CNAD exhibition, the Conference of National Armaments Directors exhibitions as we know it better, an annual event organized by the Defence Investment division and this year's CNAD exhibition is being held at NATO on the 25th and 26th of October. Could you just tell us a little more about this event? BILLINGSLEA: Indeed. One of the... you mentioned the Conference of National Armaments Directors. That is a group... they only meet twice a year. It is composed of all of the top weapons acquisition chiefs of the Alliance. So all of the top guys in this field meet twice a year to discuss and work on key programs, many of the ones we in fact we've just talked about. Now they have people here in the NATO headquarters who work everyday of the week, but they meet twice a year. One of the things that we've discovered and that we firmly believe in the fight against terrorism is that we must have a close partnership with industry and we must have a better way to reach out into the private sector to find the next new revolutionary capability. Sometimes, as I mentioned for instance the work we're doing on counter-IEDs with Spain, `sometimes this is work that is done by a professor at a laboratory at a university. It may not always be a big well-developed company. It may be a small think-tank, a small hobby shop that has come up with a technology that will change the world. So one of the things that we've been doing in connection with the twice a year meetings of the armaments directors is we bring interesting technologies to NATO, interesting ideas to NATO, for the armaments chiefs to look at. Only place in the world where this happens. Can't get these guys together at any other trade show, any other... So it's really a unique opportunity. This time around we've decided to bring to NATO unique technologies for Special Operations Forces. I mentioned earlier how important Special Operations units are to NATO and to the nations in the conduct of counter-terrorism, anti-terrorism and counter-proliferation efforts. So we're looking at ways to strengthen the capabilities of those units and to in general raise the kinds of capability that's out there. INTERVIEWER: Thank you very much for speaking to us today on so many issues and good luck in your preparations for the Riga Summit. BILLINGSLEA: Thank you very much. It was good to be here. INTERVIEWER: Thank you. BILLINGSLEA: Thanks |
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