EUROPEAN•DEFENCE
NATO Ballistic Missile Defence – a Capability for the Alliance and Protection for Europe by Richard D.F. Froh, NATO – Deputy Secretary General for Armaments, Brussels In April 2008, at the Bucharest Summit, the Heads of State and Government addressed the need for defences to protect Alliance territory, forces and population centres against the full range of missile threats. In their technical report, the Conference of National Armaments Directors (CNAD) proposed five Architecture Options built around elements of the US Ballistic Missile Defence System in Europe. Today, that report forms a solid basis both for further technical analysis by the Committee of National Armament Directors (CNAD) and for the essential political-military discussions on missile defence ongoing in the Executive Working Group (EWG) and the North Atlantic Council (NAC).
The contribution of Europe At Bucharest, NATO Heads of State and Government drew four essential conclusions regarding missile defences for the Alliance: • the significant contribution of the elements deployed in Europe of the US Ballistic Missile Defence Systems; • the increased threat of the weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missiles; • the Architecture Options based on the US deployed elements in Europe capable of providing a comprehensive coverage to NATO population centres and territory; and • the need to maintain dialog with Russia. But discussions on a possible territorial missile defence for the Alliance did not just start this year in Bucharest. In the 2002 Prague Summit, Heads of State and Government agreed the need to examine options for addressing the increasing missile threat to the Alliance in an effective and efficient way through an appropriate mix of political and defence means, including deterrence. Consistent with the indivisibility of Alliance security, NATO’s Heads of State and Government initiated the NATO Missile Defence Feasibility Study (MD FS) to examine options for protecting Alliance territory, forces and population centres against the full range of missile threats. The CNAD, one of NATO’s senior committees, was given the job of conducting the MD FS and told to report back in 2006.
The architecture The Study was conducted in parallel with other NATO activities to counter Weapons of Mass Destruction and their delivery means. To provide a Theatre Missile Defence (TMD) capability to Alliance’s deployed forces, in 2005 the North Atlantic Council created the Active Layered Theatre Ballistic Missile
Richard D. F. Froh NATO’s Deputy Secretary General since 2007. Born in Toronto, Canada, àn 10 August 1949, Richard (Rick) Froh graduated from the Royal College of Canada in Kingston, Ontario in 1972 with a Bachelors Degree in Civil Engineering. Over the next 25 years, Rick Froh served in various command and staff appointments in Combat and Construction Engineering units in Canada and in Lahr, Germany. His last appointment was a Military Assistant to the Chairman of the NATO Military Council (1992 -1996). On retiring from the Canadian Forces, Rick Froh assumed the position of Head, Land Armament section at NATO’s Brussels HQ, and on the creation of the Joint Armaments Section in July 2004, he became its head (until 2007), among others responsible for the Active layered Theatre Ballistic Missile Defence Steering Committee and the Missile Defence Project Group
Defence (ALTBMD) Programme Organization. It was tasked to execute a Programme Plan to deliver an Initial Operational Capability (IOC) in 2010 and a Full Operational Capability (FOC) in the 2015-2016 timeframe. The objective of the ALTBMD Organization is to develop and field to the war fighters a verified ALTBMD Architecture composed of a NATO-owned Battlefield Management Command, Control, Communication and Intelligence (BMC3I) system which, along with national sensors and lower-layer and upper-layer weapons systems, will form a fully integrated theatre missile defence system of systems. That Architecture will be able to protect deployed NATO forces against ballistic missiles with a range up to 3,000 km. The BMC3I will provide TMD functions at the Strategic, Operational and Tactical levels through NATO’s Bi-Strategic Command Automated Information System (Bi-SC AIS), the Alliance’s Air Command and Control System (ACCS) and NATO’s General Communications System (NGCS).
NATO Russia council is involved At the same time, under the auspices of the NATO Russia Council, work to improve both operational and technical interoperability of theatre ballistic missile defense systems was launched. The objective of this work is to ensure that NATO and Russian TMD forces which might be deployed in adjacent Areas of Responsibility during Crisis Response Operations could operate in a coordinated manner. Operational concepts and procedures were developed and assessed during three Command Post Exercises and one Computer Assisted
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