NATO defense planning in progress

The Defense Policy and Planning Committee (DPPC) of the Atlantic Alliance is working on a new defense plan, as the BMVg reported on August 14th. The DPPC is headed by NATO's Deputy Secretary General for Defense Policy and Planning, and since September last year it has been British diplomat Angus Lapsley.

"The alliance partners," according to the Permanent Mission of the Federal Republic of Germany to NATO, "divide the required military capabilities among themselves and implement these capabilities by means of national force planning. The principle of fair burden sharing is thus upheld within the Alliance and each member country makes an active contribution to the collective defense of Alliance territory.”

As part of the "NATO Defense Planning Process" (NDPP), a complex, multi-stage process is carried out every four years. At the beginning of this process, the allies set out in the "Political Guidance" which tasks the North Atlantic Alliance should be able to fulfill and to what extent. The future tasks of the alliance are then laid down in the "Level of Ambition". A Defense Planning Capability Review is then prepared every two years to evaluate the extent to which the Alliance's forces and capabilities meet the Political Guidelines and strategic objectives. The most recently published study covers the years 2021/2022.

In February of this year, under the impression of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, NATO defense ministers approved the "Political Guidance" for defense planning for 2023. This is "perhaps the most important change in defense planning since the end of the Cold War," according to the "Allied Command Transformation" (ACT) in Norfolk, Virginia.

Derived from the NATO tasks, there is a list of minimum capability requirements across the entire military performance spectrum. "Preparations," according to the Atlantic Alliance, "are underway for the targeting process that will begin in 2024 and reach the goal of a consistent and transparent outcome in 2025."

Point 22 of the alliance's last strategic concept, which was adopted at its summit meeting in Madrid in June last year, states that NATO will "optimize its planning". Point 36 mentions “further expanding civil-military planning and coordination”.

Gerd Portugall

Related topics

NATO is repositioning itself Hensoldt supplies four more air defense radars NATO defense ministers want to strengthen the eastern flank Is the NATO Space Center coming to Germany? NATO Special Summit: In Search of a New Normal NATO 2.1 Expertengruppe legt Bericht zur Reform der NATO vor German Panzergrenadiers permanently move to Lithuania German arms exports increased significantly Western concerns about Moldova's sovereignty