The NATO HQ battle: the first round is over. Still to be executed
(BRUSSELS2) The plan adopted in Lisbon in November provided for the degreasing of a little less than half of NATO headquarters, without fixing the centers promised to be closed. It is now done. Not without difficulty... The Ministers of Defense have, in fact, endorsed the list of HQs that will remain and those that will close, mainly during a dinner held on Wednesday evening at the Alliance in Brussels. But to find your way around the numbers, you have to be divine... The number of HQs is reduced from 11 to 7 (not counting transfers). The number of agencies goes from 14 to 3 (or 5 rather). The number of combined air operations centers (CAOC) goes from 4 to 2... (2,5 rather).
The numbers of these HQs will drop from 13.000 to 8.800. Note that we are talking here about budget items; " there were not, in fact, 13.000 positions filled because the States did not always find the candidates or preferred to keep them for their national staffs as a NATO official confirmed to me.
HQ: those who lose, those who win
On the side of the HQs, the distribution is a subtle arrangement that is as much political as operational, so as not to upset anyone. Everything is done so that no one is too unhappy, at the expense of efficiency, sometimes...
Portugal loses its Joint Force Command (JFC), based in Lisbon, and commanded for two years by a Frenchman (General Philippe Stoltz); but receives, in exchange, two structures, the Striking Force NATO (STRIKFORNATO) and the NATOCIS (Communications and Information Systems), which will move from Italy.
The Netherlands keeps its Joint Command (JFHQ) in Brunssum (Netherlands) as well as Italy at Naples (Italy), the latter serving as a command for the "Unified Protector" operation in Libya. Italy loses, on the other hand, the maritime command of Naples. But keeps a command and control center on the deployable air elements (DACC), wholesale transformation of its CAOC of Poggio Renatico (*). You follow ! 🙂
Germany retains a command: that of the air component (AIRCOM) in Ramstein but loses that of the land component (LANDCOM) at Heidelberg ; it moves to Izmir in Turkey. She also keeps one of the two CAOC (*) in Uedem.
Turkey, which loses an Air component command, thus recovers another command, a very political and strategic concession that is quite predictable with the Turkish ally, " a way of anchoring it a little more to NATO explains an Alliance official.
The United Kingdom retains command of the Sea Component (MARCOM), Northwood, a command that serves as NATO's anti-piracy HQ.
Spain loses command of the Land component of Madrid. But she recovers one of the CAOC which concretizes a precursor element already present in Torrejon.
Despite some rumors of relocation - more intended to scare people than really founded - the Allied Command "Operations" (ACO / SHAPE) remains near Mons (Belgium). Belgium, like its neighbor Luxembourg, is rather strengthened in the distribution of the headquarters of the agencies.
The Allied Command "Transformation" (ACT) remains in Norfolk (USA). With three specialized centres: the Joint Analysis and Lessons Learned Center (JALLC) at Monsanto near Lisbon (Portugal), the Joint Force Training Center (JFTC) in Bydgozcz (Poland), the Joint Warfare Center (JWC) in Bergen (Norway),
(*) There were until now 4 fixed CAOCs — in Uedem (Germany), Finderup (Denmark), Poggio Renatico (Italy) and Larissa (Greece) — and two deployable ones — in Uedem and Poggio Renatico (Italy).
The new agency system
A new agency structure is established around 3 poles, even five poles:
- the NATO Support Agency (NSA) will be in Capellen, Luxembourg, on the site of the current NAMSA (NATO Maintenance and Supply Agency);
- the headquarters of the NCIA (NATO Communications and Information) will be in Brussels as well as a small team designated for the Public Procurement Agency;
- a new NATO Science and Technology (S&T) organization will be created by July 2012, based in Belgium, composed of a chief scientist and, a program office for collaborative S&T, and the Underwater Research Center (NURC ), based in Italy.
- the NATO standardization agency remains in place but will be audited by spring 2014.
As for the agencies responsible for managing multinational programs such as the Eurofighter (NETMA) and the NH90 helicopter (NAHEMA), they will become program offices of the new NATO Procurement Agency and will remain in place, in their location. present, close to their industrial partners. The Nahema in Aix-en-Provence.
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