NATO MULTIMEDIA ACCOUNT

Access NATO’s broadcast-quality video content free of charge

Register

Create an account

Create an account

Check your inbox and enter verification code

We have sent a verification code to your email address. . Enter the code to verify your account. This code will expire in 30 minutes.
Verification code

Didn't receive a code? Send new Code

You have successfully created your account

From now on you can download videos from our website

Subscribe to our newsletter

If you would also like to subscribe to the newsletter and receive our latest updates, click on the button below.

Reset password

Enter the email address you registered with and we will send you a code to reset your password.

Log in or Create an account
Reset password
Check your inbox and enter verification code
We have sent a verification code to your email address. Enter the code to verify your account. This code will expire in 30 minutes.
Verification code

Didn't receive a code? Send new Code

Create a new password

The password must be at least 12 characters long, no spaces, include upper/lowercase letters, numbers and symbols.

Your password has been updated

Click the button to return to the page you were on and log in with your new password.

NATO’s role in logistics

Updated: 22 January 2025

Logistics serves as the backbone of a military’s power, providing an integrated system of supporting activities – including the supply, movement and maintenance of equipment, personnel and services – that support the full spectrum of operations. Whether provided by military, civilian or commercial providers, logistics must be built into all stages of a military operation, from early planning to implementation. NATO supports the development of logistics capabilities by creating operational standards and doctrine that build functional competencies in Allies and partners.

Mechanics from the Swedish Armed Forces prepare the weapons systems for the Swedish Gripen fighter jet, demonstrating an important logistics function.

  • Logistics underpins the ability to act. An effective logistics system produces and provides the equipment, materiel and critical supplies and services that Allied armed forces need to accomplish any operation or mission. It therefore provides political and military decision-makers with options to respond to any threat by ensuring the Alliance’s ability to deploy and sustain forces across all domains. With a dedicated system of supporting activities, combat power can be generated, delivered at extended distances from home bases and sustained for the duration of an operation or mission.
  • NATO Allies need to continuously invest in, build, test and maintain their individual and collective logistics capabilities, ensuring that they are able to support the full spectrum of military operations, including in a potential collective defence scenario based on Article 5 of the Washington Treaty.  
  • Article 5 operations would likely be large and complex, relying on military and civilian personnel, capabilities and infrastructure. Allied armed forces would require quick access to stockpiles of critical equipment, and production of new materiel and supplies would need to match consumption levels of deployed forces operating at high intensity. Allies would also require sufficient transport capacity to move these resources from home bases or forward storage sites to the frontlines.
  • Logistics acts as the strategic capability that enables the Alliance. Enablement includes all of the integrated, whole-of-government activities that underpin NATO's planning, setting the conditions for reinforcement and sustainment of forces in peacetime, crisis and conflict.
  • NATO has significantly strengthened its deterrence and defence since Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014, and particularly since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. As part of this adaptation, the Alliance has focused on ensuring the enablement of Allied forces that could be made available to NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR). This has included developing a new strategy for logistics to meet collective defence requirements. In 2024, Allies approved the Logistics Action Plan, which will guide NATO efforts in the short to medium term.
  • The Logistics Committee is the overarching coordinating authority across the whole spectrum of logistics functions within NATO. It supports the North Atlantic Council and the Military Committee on logistics-related matters, and provides advice to other relevant bodies.

Key principles and functions

Logistics principles

The following principles guide the development of policy and doctrine for all functional areas of logistics. These principles complement each other, providing a comprehensive and seamless foundation for logistics support to any possible NATO operation or mission.

  • Primacy of operational requirements – Operational requirements take priority over all other principles. All logistics efforts, from the military, civil and commercial sectors, should be focused on satisfying the operational requirements necessary to conduct an operation or mission.
  • Unity of effort – National, multinational and collective logistics efforts must be optimised by cooperation and coordination, including fair burden-sharing. Unity of effort by all parties involved maximises logistics effects and ensures the uninterrupted continuity of logistics functions if a situation deteriorates from peace to crisis or conflict.
  • Agility – Logistics support must be adaptive and flexible in order to meet operational requirements effectively. Agility allows NATO and Allies to react and adapt in a timely manner to unpredictable changes and fluctuating operational circumstances. Assured provision and built-in redundancy of logistics functions helps ensure this agility.
  • Assured provision – Resources and capabilities must always be available to provide timely, continuous, adequate and reliable logistics support of forces. This principle of assured provision relies on resilient and effective processes, management and the timely availability of enablers, including relevant civil and commercial capabilities.
  • Economy of effort – The provision of logistics support must strike a balance between effectiveness and efficiency.
  • Authority – The responsibility assigned to any NATO commander must match the authority that Allies and NATO delegate to the commander over resources and allow the adequate execution of logistics.
  • Visibility and transparency – Logistics-related information must be visible and transparent. NATO commanders require timely, accurate and relevant information to make effective decisions on the planning, coordination and execution of logistics support.

Logistics functions

NATO’s logistics fulfils a number of core functions, which can at times overlap. They comprise:

  • Supply – Supply covers materiel used in the equipment, support and maintenance of military forces. The supply function of logistics includes the determination of stock levels, provisioning, distribution and replenishment.
  • Movement – Movement is the set of activities involved in the physical transfer of personnel and/or materiel as part of a military operation. Movement requires the enabling capabilities of mobility, transportation, infrastructure, movement control and supporting functions.
  • Maintenance – Maintenance refers to the upkeep of non-consumable materiel and equipment, allowing forces to continue using these items at their original level of capacity and efficiency and for their intended purpose. Maintenance includes all actions to retain materiel and equipment or restore it to a specified condition.
  • Services – Services are required to ensure that the correct levels of expertise, functionality, assets and infrastructure are made available to meet specific military requirements. Services usually focus on facilities, assets, skilled and general labour, food, housing and accommodation, burials, water provision, laundry and bathing facilities, sanitary facilities, postal and courier services, translation services and waste management, among others.

Logistics-related areas

Several other areas are relevant to the core and enabling functions of logistics. These include:

  • Personnel support
  • Medical support
  • Military engineering support
  • Budget and finance
  • Host nation support
  • Contractor support to operations
  • Civil-military cooperation
  • Cooperation with industry
  • Resilience
  • Communications and information systems
  • Cyber defence
  • Emerging and disruptive technologies and digitalisation
  • Intelligence
  • Standardization
  • Interoperability

These areas play an important role in the success of an operation. For instance, standardization is the key tool for achieving interoperability, the ability of multinational forces to work together efficiently. Interoperability has a direct impact on mission sustainability and the combat effectiveness of forces. The minimum requirements for interoperability are commonality of concepts, doctrines and procedures; compatibility of equipment; and interchangeability of combat supplies. NATO sets common standards; produces related NATO standardization agreements (STANAGS) for procedures, systems and equipment components; and encourages individual Allies to adopt them.

Logistics policies and planning

The Logistics Committee is the overarching coordinating authority across the whole spectrum of logistics functions within NATO. It supports the North Atlantic Council and the Military Committee on logistics-related matters and provides advice to other relevant bodies.

Logistics policies

NATO’s logistics policies are articulated in a number of key policy documents. At the top are strategic-level logistics policies, which are published as North Atlantic Council memoranda and Military Committee documents. Then follow the Joint Logistic Doctrine; the Component Logistic Doctrine; Logistic Tactics, Techniques and Procedures; and Logistic Directives.All logistics policy documents promulgate the principles outlined in the section above.

A recent key policy document is the Logistics Action Plan. Agreed by Allies in May 2024, the Logistics Action Plan will guide NATO’s efforts in the short to medium term with 20 action items covering a broad range of topics. It allows Allies to identify the best ways to deliver collective solutions and ensure that NATO maintains its strategic advantage in logistics by setting out requirements for logistics support that are growing in complexity and scope.

With regard to the general implementation of logistics support, individual countries have the ultimate responsibility for equipping their forces and providing logistics resources to support the forces assigned to NATO during peace, crisis and conflict. Allies retain responsibility until they release forces to NATO through agreed mechanisms for the Transfer of Authority.

Allies and NATO authorities have a collective responsibility for ensuring that the NATO commander has access to the required logistics information. The NATO commander assumes control of commonly provided resources as directed and is responsible for establishing the logistics requirements for all phases of an operation, as well as the development of a logistics plan that supports the operational plan. The commander must also ensure that the logistics force structure and the command and control (C2) arrangements have been established and are capable of supporting the operation. The commander’s key authorities are to:

  • command common-funded logistics resources and assume operational control of Multinational Integrated Logistics Units (MILUs) and other assigned logistics assets, as directed;
  • redistribute the logistics assets of countries for the support of the forces in accordance with pre-agreed terms and conditions; and
  • inspect and require reports on the quantity and quality of logistics assets designated to support the forces that will be under their command.

Logistics planning

There are two distinct areas of planning in NATO: the NATO Defence Planning Process (NDPP) and the Operations Planning Process (OPP).

The NDPP covers mid- and long-term planning, providing the framework for the generation of capabilities, stockpiles and resources at the appropriate level of readiness and sustainability. These aspects require a whole-of-government approach, with both civilian and military actors ensuring that NATO and national logistics systems are ready to operate coherently and meet the Alliance's agreed requirements in the most effective way.

The OPP relates to the planning and execution of the Alliance’s operations and missions. Operations planning requirements are specified in terms of quantity and quality by conducting assessments and logistics estimates. They are matched by national, multinational, common-funded, military and/or contractual logistics solutions, informed by factual data or by appropriate assumptions.

NATO’s two Strategic Commanders – Supreme Allied Commander Europe and Supreme Allied Commander Transformation – are also responsible for developing stockpile requirements. For this purpose, NATO requirements are listed in the NATO Stockpile Planning Guidance, which is reviewed every two years. Stockpiling is closely linked to the principles of logistics readiness and sustainability. National and NATO logistics plans must ensure that sufficient quantity and quality of logistics resources are available at the same readiness and deployability levels to support forces until a re-supply system is in place. In addition, combat power must be sustained for the foreseen duration of operations, which necessitates sufficient stocks or at least assured access to industrial capabilities, agreements, contingency contracts and other means, including contractor support to operations.

NATO continuously tests and refines its logistics policies and plans through military exercises. These exercises, which can involve dozens of countries and thousands of troops across vast areas of Alliance territory, test the readiness of national and NATO logistics networks to enable the deployment of Allied reinforcements and their sustainment.

Bodies involved

The following bodies are involved in, or support, NATO logistics:

Policy committees and subcommittees

Bi-Strategic Command (Bi-SC) bodies*

(*Bi-SC signifies that the formation in question reports to both Strategic Commanders (SC).)

Agencies

Logistics Committee

The Logistics Committee (LC) is NATO’s principal committee dealing with logistics. Its overall mandate is two-fold: to address logistics matters with a view to enhancing the performance, efficiency, sustainability and combat effectiveness of Alliance forces; and to exercise, on behalf of the North Atlantic Council, an overarching coordinating authority across the whole spectrum of logistics functions within NATO. It carries out its work through subordinate bodies such as the Logistics Committee Executive Group, the Movement and Transportation Group and the Operational Energy Committee.

  • The Logistics Committee Executive Group (LCEG) is the principal subordinate body of the LC. It supports and advises the LC and exercises coordinating authority on its behalf across the whole spectrum of logistics.
  • The Movement and Transportation Group (M&TG) is responsible for civil and military movement and transportation matters.
  • The Operational Energy Committee (OEC) is the principal advisory body to the LC on all matters related to sustainable and interoperable energy supply in support of NATO operations. The OEC is responsible for the strategic and policy direction, planning guidance and general coordination of activities covering the full spectrum of operational energy issues, including efforts related to the global energy transition. It further covers infrastructure to receive, store, transport and distribute energy, including the NATO Pipeline System (NPS), of which the Central Europe Pipeline System (CEPS) is an important part.

The LC reports to both the Military Committee and the North Atlantic Council, reflecting the dependence of logistics on both civil and military factors.

Defence Policy and Planning Committee

The Defence Policy and Planning Committee (DPPC) is the senior advisory body in NATO for defence matters concerning all member countries and it has the lead on defence aspects of NATO’s relations with partners. The DPPC deals with a broad range of issues such as transformation, defence capabilities, agency reform and common-funded acquisition. It is a key committee for logistics policies and planning.

Resilience Committee

The Resilience Committee (RC) is the senior forum to deliver strategic and policy direction, planning guidance and general coordination of resilience activities at NATO, leveraging a whole-of-government approach among Allies and taking into account the broader resilience of Allied societies.

Committee of the Chiefs of Military Medical Services in NATO

The Committee of the Chiefs of Military Medical Services in NATO (COMEDS) acts as the central point for the development and coordination of military medical matters and for providing medical advice to the Military Committee.

Committee for Standardization

The Committee for Standardization (CS) is the senior authority of the Alliance for providing coordinated advice to the North Atlantic Council on overall standardization matters. Since the aim of NATO standardization is to enhance the Alliance’s operational effectiveness through the attainment of interoperability among NATO forces, and additionally between NATO forces and the forces of partner and other countries, it coordinates with the LC on logistics matters.

Bi-SC Movement and Transportation Forum

The Bi-Strategic Command Movement and Transportation Forum (Bi-SC M&T Forum) is the senior forum for coordinating Alliance-wide concerns for movement and transportation policy planning between the two Strategic Commanders, NATO members and designated agencies. Movement and transport matters of relevance to the forum are those that derive from the NATO commander’s movement and transport responsibility and from concepts and policies developed by staff at NATO Headquarters.

Bi-SC Medical Advisory Group

The Bi-Strategic Command Medical Advisory Group (Bi-SC MEDAG) provides a forum for the discussion of medical issues between the two Strategic Commanders. Medical matters of relevance to the group are those that derive from the NATO commander’s medical responsibility and from concepts and policies developed by NATO Headquarters.

Bi-SC Logistics Planning Advisory Committee

The Bi-Strategic Command Logistics Planning Advisory Committee (Bi-SC LPAC) provides expert advice on all logistics issues related to the development and provision of deployable and usable logistics capabilities for current and future operations.

NATO Support and Procurement Agency

The NATO Support and Procurement Agency (NSPA) is NATO’s main services provider, delivering a broad spectrum of integrated capabilities for the Alliance, its member countries and partners. It brings together NATO’s logistics and procurement support activities by offering products and services according to its five essential operations:

  • Fuel management, including the Central European Pipeline System (CEPS) programme
  • Strategic transport and storage, which includes the NATO Airlift Management Programme (NAMP)
  • Systems procurement and life cycle management
  • Logistics services and project management
  • Support to operations and exercises

NATO Communications and Information Agency

The NATO Communications and Information Agency (NCIA) is NATO’s technology and cyber hub. It supports logistics by providing information management systems, tools and platforms for functional information flow.

Evolution of logistics in NATO

During the Cold War

During the Cold War, NATO followed the principle that logistics was a national responsibility. Accordingly, its only focus at the time was the establishment of and compliance with overall logistics requirements. This principle governed NATO’s plans and actions until the beginning of the 1990s, when the strategic environment underwent fundamental changes.

Before the 1990s, NATO logistics was limited to the North Atlantic area. The Alliance planned the linear defence of Western Europe with national corps supported by national support elements. Lines of communication within Europe extended westwards and northwards to Channel and North Sea ports. Collective defence planning called for reinforcements and supplies to be sea-lifted from the United States and Canada to these same ports and to be airlifted to European bases to pick up additional pre-positioned equipment.

During this period, the NATO Pipeline System expanded to supply fuel to NATO forces in Europe. The NATO Maintenance and Supply Agency (NAMSA), which would later evolve to become part of the NATO Support and Procurement Agency (NSPA), was created in Luxembourg, initially to aid European countries in their purchase of US combat aircraft in the 1950s.

In the 1990s, NATO recognised the changed security environment it was operating in as a result of NATO enlargement, the Partnership for Peace (PfP) and other cooperation programmes with Central and Eastern Europe, cooperation with other international organisations, and peace-support operations in the Balkans. These developments presented significant challenges for NATO’s logistics staff and led to major changes in NATO logistics policy.

The Balkans experience

NATO's deployment of the Implementation Force (IFOR) to Bosnia and Herzegovina in December 1995 revealed shortcomings in the Alliance’s logistics support structures for peace-support operations. IFOR's 60,000 troops in Bosnia and Herzegovina were deployed and supplied nationally by road, rail, ships and aircraft over relatively short lines of communication. The logistics footprint was very large, featuring redundant national logistics structures, reducing the efficiency and effectiveness of the overall force.

The Stabilization Force (SFOR), which replaced IFOR as NATO’s mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1996, and the Kosovo Force (KFOR), which deployed in June 1999, suffered from the same stove-piped national logistics support as IFOR. For example, KFOR had five field hospitals, one for each brigade, when fewer would have been sufficient for the force.

Increased multinational cooperation

Experiences from the IFOR, SFOR and KFOR missions highlighted the need for greater multinational cooperation in logistics and resulted in major revisions to PfP and NATO logistics policies and procedures. Furthermore, the downsizing of military resources following the end of the Cold War also stressed the need for increased multinational cooperation in logistics support. The new security environment required the Alliance to be able to logistically sustain non-Article 5 crisis response operations, potentially at remote distances from the supporting national logistic and industrial bases and on non-NATO territory, with no supportive or functioning host nation. All of this needed to be undertaken under the legal conditions of peace, with no access to mobilisation or emergency legislation.

1999 Strategic Concept

The Senior NATO Logisticians’ Conference (SNLC), which at the time was the senior body on logistics, undertook to translate the Alliance’s 1999 Strategic Concept into responsive, flexible and interoperable logistics principles and policies. It first developed a vision for NATO logistics to develop collective responsibility in logistics between NATO and the countries involved in a given operation or mission.

This collective responsibility was attained through close coordination and cooperation between national and NATO authorities during both planning and execution. It also focused more on the efficient use of civil resources. As a result of their experiences in NATO-led operations and missions, countries had attached more importance to this approach to logistics support, especially in the case of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan from 2003 to 2014.

NATO logistics in Afghanistan

After the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States, NATO could no longer afford to do logistics in the same way as it did in the Balkans. NATO started facing some of these limitations with ISAF in Afghanistan, which is land-locked and far from Europe.

The long lines of communication inside the country were hampered by rough terrain, unpaved roads and security threats. ISAF therefore relied heavily on airlift for movement, reinforcements and supplies. Most of its airlift requirements were provided by the United States or by Russian aircraft leased by Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE) through the NATO Maintenance and Supply Agency (NAMSA) in Luxembourg (Russia and NATO cooperated on many issues, including counter-terrorism, prior to Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014).

Tactical fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft were crucial for the expansion of ISAF’s mission in Afghanistan beyond the capital city, as it could take days to travel from Kabul to the provinces by road, made potentially impossible in the winter with snow. This expansion began in January 2005 with the establishment of Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRTs), north of the Afghan capital, then to the west, the south and the east.

NATO Policy for Cooperation in Logistics

In 2001, a NATO Policy for Cooperation in Logistics was developed to improve multinational cooperation. The framework for its implementation is the Concept for Cooperation in Logistics, which was composed of three principal elements:

  • the Alliance’s policy and guidance documents that directed and influenced NATO logistics in their own domains;
  • the cooperation tools (or “enablers”) that promoted cooperation in logistics (i.e. policy, doctrine, activities, systems, standards, procedures and capabilities); and
  • the Harmonisation, Coordination and Control Mechanism, which was the formal mechanism that continuously identified and managed cooperation objectives and enablers, such as when they were put into place and when they were achieved.

2022 Strategic Concept

At the 2022 Madrid Summit, Allied Heads of State and Government adopted a new Strategic Concept for the defence and security of NATO members. The document deepened NATO’s commitment to strengthening its deterrence and defence, particularly following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine earlier that year. Allied forces must be fully enabled and supported, including through effective logistics, to deliver timely deterrence effects and, if needed, to defend NATO territory. Allies agreed that they must continue, both nationally and in NATO, to improve the Alliance’s ability to support the deployment and sustainment of Allied forces.

2023 Vilnius Summit

At the 2023 Vilnius Summit, Allied Heads of State and Governments agreed to make political and military efforts to address the challenges brought by the changing global security environment, in clear recognition that a credible deterrence and defence posture relies upon a robust logistics bedrock of capabilities and available resources. During the Summit, Allies agreed the Logistics Manifesto, which acknowledged the scale and nature of the challenge posed by logistics and pledged to invest more nationally. They also agreed to cooperate and coordinate more at the level of the Alliance and, when appropriate, to deliver some logistics collectively.

Logistics Action Plan

In light of the needs expressed in the Logistics Manifesto, the North Atlantic Council approved the Logistics Action Plan in May 2024. The Plan provides a mechanism for organising and directing the efforts needed to deliver the changes necessary in logistics, taking into account NATO’s requirements for deterrence and defence, the implementation of NATO’s defence plans, and contributions to NATO crisis management operations. Allies identify the best ways to deliver collective solutions and effects, including by use of innovation and collaboration, ensuring that NATO maintains its strategic advantage in logistics.

The Plan also recognises that Allies must boost the support host nations are providing to Allied troops for collective defence, which is central to deliberate and effective logistics support planning. Host nation support underpins NATO’s reinforcement and sustainment network, ensuring that Allied forces are enabled to effectively and rapidly enter, transit, reach and operate across Alliance territory with the necessary supporting structures and assets.

Related content

/