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NATO ALLIED COMMAND TR ANSFORMATION 1

READ AHEAD | SMPC 2016 WS 1 MARITIME

STRATEGIC MILITARY PARTNERS CONFERENCE 2016 | BUCHAREST, ROU | 7-9 JUNworkshop 1 | nato partnership in the maritime domain: on, above, and below the seas

IntroductionThe Strategic Military Partners Conference (SMPC) is a two-day, Chief of Defence-level event hosted by Allied Command Transformation (ACT) to discuss military-specific issues of transformation that are common to allies and partners. The content for SMPC 2016 is under development through a series of workshops that each focus on a single domain in which military

partnership takes place: maritime, air, land, and cyber. This workshop is the first of four such events. The ideas expressed during this workshop and subsequent events will be synthesised, with the salient points identified to be the central themes of SMPC 2016. Our aim is to create a baseline awareness that can inform policymakers in allied and partner nations.

Background CONTEXT: The workshop theme, “NATO Partnership in the Maritime Domain—On, Above, and Below the Seas”, reflects an opportune moment to examine the future of NATO’s military partnerships in the maritime domain. From humanitarian responses and counter-piracy missions, to sealift and freedom of navigation operations, every allied and partner navy and Coast Guard has a role to play in assuring access to the world’s primary circulatory system for mutual and enduring benefit, particularly in this era of immense innovation and change. Thus, it is important for allies and partners to discuss the development of joint,

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A CONCEPTUAL PIECE TO ENCOURAGE DISCUSSION: NOT OFFICIAL POLICY | DOES NOT NECESSARILY REFLECT THE VIEWS OF NATO.

THIS IS THE FIRST workshop in a series of four designed to shape the content for the Strategic Military Partners Conference 2016 (SMPC). These workshops take place at the staff level and are informal engagements intended to promote open discussions on the most pressing partnership-related issues affecting current and future military affairs.

As much as SMPC 2016 is an established event on NATO’s calendar of annual engagements, it is in effect much more than a conference; SMPC has become a decades-long campaign to transform military partnership among allies and partners in areas of mutual interest. Few conferences in NATO have the scope and depth of SMPC, let alone the frequency of related events to build relationships and refine ideas at all levels of command.

15-17 SEP 2015 | SIN

2 NATO ALLIED COMMAND TR ANSFORMATION


innovative capabilities required to support future multinational naval operations, as well as the means by which allies and partners continually foster strategic trust and shared situational awareness.

Building on partner-related developments in the Alliance over the past three years, and mindful of key shifts in the strategic context, the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) and its partners are forging a new era of cooperation in order to navigate the challenges of a more complex and connected world. Some call this phenomenon the globalisation of regional security. It is underpinned by global logistics and information, which has enabled an unprecedented degree of interdependence amongst states and peoples. Corresponding crises can affect all states almost simultaneously.

In the maritime domain, some of NATO’s most steadfast maritime partnerships involve nations well beyond Europe and North America. While geographically distant, the values, interests, and capabilities of these partners are aligned with those of the Alliance. The rationale behind these partnerships can be put succinctly: NATO and its maritime partners have mutual interests in keeping the maritime commons open for the responsible exchange of goods,

services, ideas, and people. This openness can be best realised through cooperation with partners throughout the world that depend on the maritime domain for security and prosperity.

The benefits of cooperation on the high seas are manifold. The core benefit is that NATO’s partnership community improves mutual awareness. In addition, partnership enables decision-makers to exercise greater choice, based on timely and relevant information made more accurate through consultation with partners.

NATO’s tools for partnership include the geographic frameworks that began with the Partnership for Peace (PfP) and now include the Istanbul Cooperation Initiative (ICI), Mediterranean Dialogue (MD), and Partners across the Globe (PATG). At the Wales Summit in 2014, NATO introduced two new partnership tools that focus less on geography and more on functionality: Partnership Interoperability Initiative (PII) that includes the Interoperability Platform (IP) and Enhanced Opportunities Partners (EOP), and Defence and Related Security Capacity Building (DCB) programmes. Combined, NATO’s partnership tools enable the Alliance and partners to work together with a high degree of interoperability in the post-ISAF (International Security Assistance Force) era.

STRATEGY: The Alliance Maritime Strategy (AMS) recognises a need for effective maritime security policies and capabilities that must incorporate a multinational approach to optimize the use of best available systems that facilitate interoperability. It notes long term concerns including power and energy considerations for maritime security, countering cyber threats, and adversarial capabilities in

IN THE MARITIME DOMAIN, PARTNERSHIP IN A GLOBALISED WORLD HAS LED TO SOME OF NATO’S MOST STEADFAST MARITIME PARTNERS THAT INVOLVE NATIONS WELL BEYOND EUROPE AND NORTH AMERICA.



unmanned systems and cyber security. AMS describes three broad areas of activities for Maritime Security operations:

• conducting surveillance and patrolling, and information sharing;• maintaining the ability of NATO’s maritime forces to undertake the full range of maritime interdiction missions (including law enforcement, prevention of the transport and deployment of weapons of mass destruction, and freedom of navigation); and, • contributing to energy security, including protection of critical energy infrastructure and sea lines of communication.

INNOVATION: Innovation has enabled NATO to remain the main security guarantor for Europe and North America for over sixty years. Innovation is important, especially

given the increasingly rapid technological change that encompasses all areas of human endeavour. We must remain mindful that no military has survived without adapting to core security challenges of its time.

A growth of terrestrial sensor networks, combined with projected development in relatively inexpensive unmanned vehicle technologies is already challenging maritime security procurement efforts in allied and partner nations alike. The intensifying requirement for innovation reaches all areas of the capability development spectrum and includes at its core a need for greater collaboration and trust, at strategic and operational levels, between like-minded organisations.

The increasing availability of ship movement and metadata, both in coastal and open



waters provides an unprecedented picture of maritime activity. New sensors, nano-satellites, increased satellite on-board processing and improvements in cloud and quantum computing will yield further exponential improvement in maritime situational awareness. Automatic processing, linked to threat and risk assessments is increasingly useful in synthesizing patterns and identifying anomalous behaviour. As forces of the Alliance face the need to be able to mine and analyse vast quantities of data to produce and share actionable intelligence, improve situational awareness and share it with partners, there is even more demand to collect and make use of information derived from abundant and accurate resources.

The development of completely autonomous, networked, and intelligent weapons systems has profound implications for the longer term. Predicted improvements in artificial intelligence are now projected in years, not decades. Advanced manufacturing methods increase availability and reduce costs. There are ethical and legal constraints against such weapons; however, allies and partners alike must prepare forces with the assumption that adversaries will not respect rules or ethics that are sacrosanct in democratic states.

IMPLICATIONS: For navies of allied and partner states that contend with adversaries in possession of Anti-Access and Area-Denial (A2AD) capabilities, breakthrough technologies can and will be used by potential enemies that blend various approaches to war in order to exploit differences in strategic cultures. These include: historical legacies, geographic realities, loopholes in legal architecture and economic fragilities. While not all allies and partners will invest in innovative technologies uniformly, the common security space will be shaped by the emergence of these new tools, for better or worse. Therefore, it is important for allies and partners to share concepts, policies, and doctrine that increase interoperability as appropriate.

Taking partnership to new levels of success requires new ideas and action at all levels. An important step is the development of lists of potential activities that could be offered by NATO to partners and non-partners. These activities span the spectrum of practical cooperation that NATO has on offer—from low to high end engagement, from regular exchange of information, to targeted maritime training activities.

Military cooperation in NATO is anchored by Education, Training, Exercise, and Evaluation (ETEE) activities. Allies and partners in the maritime domain recognise that increased interaction between their navies is central. In addition, the use of port visits, operational training and education activities related to naval operations at NATO Education and Training Facilities (NETFs), Centres of Excellence, and Partner Training and Education Centres (PTECs) should be considered by partners that desire stronger cooperation with the Alliance.

STRATEGIC AWARENESS ON THE HIGH SEAS IS CRITICAL FOR EFFECTIVE AND FRUITFUL PARTNERSHIPS THROUGHOUT THE WORLD.



These potential activities include the exchange of information between NATO maritime units, NATO Maritime Command (MARCOM), and partners as appropriate. Information exchanges could include unclassified information, as well as situational awareness regarding particular geographic areas of strategic interest to NATO.

Strategic awareness on the high seas is critical for effective and fruitful partnerships throughout the world. To that end, allied and partner participation in maritime events, sea days, and workshops organised by Allied Commands Operations and Transformation could bolster partnership in specific areas of mutual concern. The use of liaison officers to NATO commands and partner equivalents can help increase cooperation, interoperability, and situational awareness.

Improving maritime interoperability presupposes increasing participation in activities related to specific maritime capability development, defence planning efforts, Smart Defence projects, and officer exchange programmes. These activities support the participation of partners in NATO-led operations, for instance as a member

of the NATO Response Force (NRF), and implies greater flexibility for partners to do that.

Harbour Protection (HP) capabilities are a good example of collaborative efforts that lead to a Smart Defence project. HP, with problematic threat identification and high levels of clutter, could represent a considerable challenge, especially for subsurface defence (swimmers and mines) and defence against low, slow fliers. These challenges also apply to the protection of critical offshore infrastructures. Smart and innovative procurement could facilitate the acquisition and implementation of those capabilities.

Combined, this diverse array of effort translates into the need for greater transparency and planning in ETEE efforts, and those efforts related to capability development and strategic policy.

Questions• POLICY: Does the Alliance Maritime Strategy match the strategic ambitions for partnership with the supporting policies on the high seas, both for today and for the



future?o What are the political objectives that guide and underpin military partnership? To what extent are the chosen means appropriate to the political ends envisioned by senior leaders?

• Education, Training, Exercise, and Evaluation (ETEE): Mindful of the general satisfaction of current policy frameworks for partnership, how can NATO improve its partnership tools, particularly with regard to maritime-related ETEE efforts and operations?o Can the concept of Individually Tailored Roadmaps (ITRs) assist partners in aligning ETEE efforts to bolster interoperability? If so, then how can ITR’s enhance maritime interoperability?o As NATO relies increasingly on operational partners, how can NATO be more inclusive? Once partners agree to support NATO and vice versa, how can allies and partners optimise the process of decision-making at all levels? o Noting that Defence and Related Security Capacity Building (DCB) is inherently bi-lateral and the maritime environment is inherently international, is there an opportunity to transfer the benefits of DCB into the maritime environment?

• CAPABILITY DEVELOPMENT: Which are the areas of maritime interoperability that

need the greatest amount of attention?o What are the key technological innovations likely to shape the maritime domain over the long term? What are the implications for capability development?o As allies develop their Military Capability Requirements for their Defence Planning Process and address identified capability shortfalls such as deployable and sustainable Command and Control (C2), Joint Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (JISR), anti-submarine warfare, or deployable medical treatment facilities, are there opportunities for NATO and partners to work together to bridge these gaps?

• OPERATIONS: Is there an emerging division of labour in the maritime domain between allies and partners? Should some partners focus on specific parts of the operational spectrum or geographic regions? And if so, how can military forces become more agile, flexible and adaptable to address future security challenges in the maritime domain?o What is the basis of military cooperation between allies and partners in the maritime domain? How do they divide their respective tasks and have these divisions changed over time?

• STRATEGIC INTERESTS: What are the ties that bind allies and partners together and how can they be exploited to further the ambitions of partnership in the Alliance?o What are the most important considerations that influence the conduct of maritime operations and the formation of strategy among the members and partners of the Alliance involved in cooperative activities?

• FORESIGHT: How can NATO play a role in the settlement of current conflicts and resolution of historical grievances throughout

THE OUTPUTS FROM THE WORKSHOP WILL FORM THE MARITIME COMPONENT OF THE CONTENT FOR SMPC 2016 AND HIGHLIGHT HOW KEY THEMES THAT TRANSCEND ALL DOMAINS CAN AFFECT OPERATIONS FROM THE SEA



maritime domain? o How can navies and Coast Guards work together in the pursuit of broader objectives to ensure peace and stability on the high seas?

Goals and ObjectivesThe workshop will bring together leading policy makers and subject matter experts from allied and partner nations to help translate the latest developments in partnership policy, technological advancement, and strategic issues. The outputs from the workshop will form the maritime component of the content for SMPC 2016 and highlight how key themes that transcend all domains can affect operations from the sea, e.g., unmanned systems, defence innovation, strategic foresight, and special operations forces.

The workshop has the following objectives:• Bring together leading subject matter experts and decision makers to advance awareness about current policy and future opportunities to promote partnership in the maritime domain.• Identify areas where allies and partners can promote collaboration to address local, regional, and global maritime security issues, as well as overcome barriers that limit cooperation.• Engage new stakeholders in areas of common interest and identify areas of potential cooperation in the future, especially those representatives most concerned with the development of capabilities, strategic policy, and maritime security policy. • Demonstrate the great importance of partnership in the maritime domain and the potential costs of inaction over the long term. This includes increasing awareness of partnership initiatives taking place in NATO and exploring corresponding implications.• Advance the spread of partnership efforts to other areas in NATO, e.g., defence

and capability planning, strategic policy.• Provide opportunities for multinational stakeholder dialogue to help develop solutions to unresolved challenges in innovation, capability development, and strategic policy that pertain to maritime partnership.

SummaryThis workshop reflects the scale of the task and the power to mobilise allies, partners, and IO/NGO communities to work together on issues of common interest in the maritime domain. From humanitarian operations and counter-piracy missions, to sealift and freedom of navigation operations, every allied and partner navy has a role to play in assuring access to the world’s primary circulatory system for mutual and enduring benefit, particularly in an era of unprecedented innovation and change.

The workshop will be inclusive; all discussions will remain at the NATO Unclassified level. The conference and all SMPC-related planning will be transparent. Discussions will be relevant and focus on addressing issues common to allies and partners alike.



Allied Command Transformation (ACT) leads many initiatives designed to transform NATO’s military structure, forces, capabilities and doctrine. Its main responsibilities include education, training and exercises, as well as conducting experiments to assess new concepts, and promoting interoperability throughout the Alliance.

7857 Blandy Road, Suite 100, Norfolk, VA 23551www.act.nato.int

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