Speaker: Général Philippe Lavigne, NATO's Supreme Allied Commander Transformation
Since 24 February 2022, we have changed reality.
But the world has not changed overnight. Our security environment has long been complex and ambiguous.
And today,
- Traditional State and Non-State Actors adversaries and competitors still exist: Russia, China, Iran, North Korea… terror groups and criminal organizations still threaten global peace and regional stability;
- technology has never stopped being disruptive;
- and global challenges such as pandemics and climate change, have - and will continue to have - global consequences.
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What is new is the speed, intensity, and agility.
In a nutshell, the New Reality is more, faster, and everywhere. And I can use the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine to illustrate this.
MORE – it’s more data, more space, more autonomous systems…
In Ukraine, we see more attrition, more consumption, more hard power.
FASTER – think hypervelocity, or quantum computing in the context of better understanding, and decision-making.
In Ukraine, the warfighters have come up with innovative ideas to speed-up their decision loop, in order to outpace the Russian one and counter overwhelming odds.
EVERYWHERE – because this densification and acceleration is happening across all domains and environments.
And not just military, think ‘weaponization’ of mass migration, or energy security…
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Several months before the invasion of Ukraine, NATO's two Strategic Commands, Allied Command Operations and Allied Command Transformation, had their respective concepts approved at the nations’ highest political level.
The NWCC (NATO Warfighting Capstone Concept) is ACT's vision for the future of NATO's military instrument of power, organized around six imperatives.
- Cognitive Superiority, a first imperative aimed at understanding the operating environment, and I will elaborate on this…
- Layered Resilience;
- Influence and Power Projection;
- Cross-Domain Command;
- And Integrated Multi-Domain Defense.
Policy Insight Forum - As Prepared. It all starts with better understanding.
Because of the changing character of war, the “MORE, FASTER and EVERYWHERE” of the new reality, must first be addressed through Anticipation.
We launched a new strategic foresight cycle last year to address the series of strategic shocks in the security environment.
The core objective is to anticipate the evolution of the Future Security Environment over the next twenty years and beyond, and to identify the relevant implications for the Alliance.
Recognizing the need to respond to this new reality, NATO Heads of State and Government at the Madrid Summit almost a year ago, decided on a fundamental shift in our Deterrence and Defense.
NATO is now renewing its focus on Collective Defense.
We are upgrading our Defense plans and strengthening our ability to reinforce more rapidly and become more agile in crisis or conflict. 6 Policy Insight Forum - As Prepared
We are also reassessing our stockpiles of munitions and equipment, through the NATO Defense Planning Process, to provide industry with the long-term demand to increase production.
The relationship between NATO and Industry is key!
We need to adapt the industrial production capacity to the high intensity warfare.
At the same time, we need to use technology, R&D and Innovation to support NATO’s Digital Transformation towards Multi Domain Operations in order to keep the edge.
From ammunition to digital capabilities, we must be able to produce better, faster and cheaper. You may be wondering what MDO, Multi-Domain Operations, is all about…
In a nutshell, tomorrow, any shooter or decision-maker – at any level – must be able to use any sensor and any information, across all domains, and beyond the purely military instrument of power. 7 Policy Insight Forum - As Prepared
MDO is the orchestration of military activities, across all domains and environments, synchronized with non-military activities, to enable the Alliance to create converging effects at the speed of relevance.
And Digital Transformation is our path to MDO, starting with Digital interoperability.
Because tomorrow’s interoperability will be data-centric, and fully multi-domain.
From a data perspective, this means that we must move from the “need-to-know”, to the “need-to-share”.
Digital Transformation must enable any NATO warfighter, or decision-maker, at any level, from any nation, in any domain, to securely share and consume any data, from and with anyone else, in near real-time.
At least for digital capabilities, we need to change our mindset and become agile, less risk-averse and resolutely focused on operational advantage over unnecessary bureaucratic regulation. 8 Policy Insight Forum - As Prepared
Therefore, we need to continue to develop our approach to innovation.
At ACT, Innovation means bringing to life and experimenting, quickly and at small scale, a promising idea or tech, and assessing if it can be a game changer – or if it is operationally valuable.
If it is the case, we must scale it up in capabilities or doctrine.
We must continue to stimulate innovation, to share our best practices and innovative ideas to use EDTs, through seminars, challenges and other events.
We must also manage and expand our innovation network.
At ACT, we have long recognized that we do not have the expertise to address emerging challenges within our traditional NATO communities.
We always need to reach out to outside experts and entrepreneurs, who often reside in academia and industry, or even elsewhere. 9 Policy Insight Forum - As Prepared
In 2012, we implemented the concept of open innovation with the creation of the ACT Innovation Hub.
Year after year, project after project, we have inspired the creation of national open innovation entities.
Today, our Innovation Network brings together 18 government-owned entities from 10 nations; including lately the Portuguese Army and NATO AIRCOM.
Joint training of personnel from 18 members will begin next September, through Project Mercury, which was developed jointly by the USAF, the University of Michigan, and our NATO Innovation Hub.
Our next event, the NATO Innovation Network workshop, will take place in Boston/MIT in late October.
I would like to take this opportunity to underline the commitment of the Innovation for Defence Excellence and Security (IDEaS) program to the development of the NATO Innovation Network, and the preparation of this workshop. 10 Policy Insight Forum - As Prepared
And of course we expect DIANA to join soon.
With DIANA, the Alliance will continue to adapt to keep pace.
DIANA will focus on emerging and disruptive technologies that NATO has identified as priorities, including Artificial Intelligence, big data processing, quantum-enabled technologies, autonomy, biotechnology, novel materials and space.
Innovators participating in DIANA’s programs will have access to more than 63 test centers across Europe and North America.
At ACT, we will help DIANA by, for example, organizing Disruptive Experiments to assess the military utility of the solutions generated by the DIANA challenges.
I know that Canada has a special commitment to DIANA.
I am also pleased that the discussions between Canada and DIANA are progressing with regard to the choice of the place that will soon be DIANA's home on the North American continent. 11 Policy Insight Forum - As Prepared
I am confident about the future of Innovation in Canada. As I am confident for the future of Innovation in NATO… because we give ourselves the means to do so!
At the Madrid Summit, we launched the NATO Innovation Fund.
It is the world’s first multi-sovereign venture capital fund ever!
It will invest 1 billion euros over the next 15 years in start-ups and funds developing dual-use, emerging technologies, such as Artificial Intelligence.
The fund will engage early with private sector start-ups, bridging the gap between the commercial world, and the traditional, government-centric world of defense and security. It will also help protect our most innovative techs from our competitors and ensure that funding comes from a trusted source.
The key to implementing NATO Digital Transformation as quickly as possible is to adapt our mind-set, and some of our processes.
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We need to critically assess every feature of a future capability – and not just performance, but also time and cost – to ensure that the cost is no greater than is necessary to perform the function.
We need to implement the norms and standards we have already agreed, at the speed of relevance, to improve interoperability.
And we need to make better use of the Private Sector, to bridge the growing gap between
- the pace of Tech development by the private sector
- and the pace of Tech adoption by governments in general, and NATO in particular.
Finally, to better manage Technology and Innovation, NATO’s overall approach and governance needs to be further improved, towards greater agility and flexibility.
But please, remember that streamlining processes and driving change in policies, rules and regulations, is a team effort.
ACT has the expertise to help, through our Innovation network, but also through our leading position for the next step of the NATO Defense Planning Process. Policy Insight Forum - As Prepared
We will continue to challenge existing practices to accelerate Capability Development through innovation and the use of EDTs.
And we will continue to develop partnerships with the EU, with government agencies, academia and the private sector, both within and outside the NATO enterprise.
I look forward to exchanging views with you.
Thank you for your attention.
