The Defence Planning Process

There are three primary disciplines: force, resource and armaments planning; and four supporting disciplines: logistics, nuclear, C3 (consultation, command and control), and civil emergency planning. Defence planning is also related to other disciplines, such as air defence planning, standardisation, intelligence, operational planning, and force generation.

Most of these disciplines are conducted with the participation of all Allies, under the aegis of the North Atlantic Council. However, force and nuclear planning are conducted without France under the authority of the Defence Planning Committee and the Nuclear Planning Group respectively.

Force planning

Force planning deals specifically with providing NATO with the forces and capabilities from members it needs to execute its full range of missions, in accordance with the Alliance's Strategic Concept. In essence, it seeks to ensure that Allies develop modern, deployable, sustainable and interoperable forces, which can operate abroad with limited or no support from the country of destination.

The force planning process is based on three sequential main elements, namely political guidance, planning targets and defence reviews. Political guidance sets out the overall aims to be met, including NATO's Level of Ambition that establishes in military terms the number, scale and nature of operations that the Alliance should be able to conduct. Planning targets include both a detailed determination of Alliance requirements and the setting of implementation targets to fulfil those requirements. Defence reviews provide a means to assess the degree to which the planning targets are being met.

The term force planning' is often confused with that of defence planning', which is much broader, and that of operational planning, which is conducted for specific, NATO-agreed operations.

Resource planning

The large majority of resources are national. NATO resource planning aims to provide the Alliance with the capabilities it needs, but focuses on the elements that are joined in common funding, that is to say where members pool resources within a NATO framework. In this regard, resource planning is closely linked to operational planning, which aims to ensure that the Alliance can fulfil its present and future operational commitments and fight new threats such as terrorism and weapons of mass destruction.

There is a distinction to be made between joint funding and common funding:

• joint funding covers activities, managed by NATO agencies, such as the NATO Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) and NATO pipelines;
• common funding involves three different budgets: the civil budget, which covers the running costs of NATO headquarters; the military budget, which essentially covers the running costs of NATO's integrated military command structure and the NATO-wide communication and air defence networks; and the NATO Security Investment Programme that covers core NATO-wide investment requirements for communication systems, air defence systems and core networks of airfields, fuel supplies and command structures. The military budget and the Security Investment Programme also support the theatre headquarter elements of crisis response operations.

Relatively speaking, these budgets represent a small amount of money, but they are key for the cohesion of the Alliance and the integration of capabilities. NATO's military common-funded budget represents 0.3 per cent of the combined defence budgets of Allied members.

Armaments planning

Armaments planning is one of the main constituting elements of NATO's defence planning process. It aims to support the Alliance's military and political objectives, as well as its capabilities, and focuses on the development of multinational (but not common-funded) programmes. It does this by promoting cost-effective acquisition, co-operative development and the production of armaments. It also encourages interoperability, and technological and industrial co-operation among Allies and Partners.

The Conference of National Armaments Directors (CNAD), which oversees NATO's armaments co-operation efforts, has created a set of tools to monitor progress. The CNAD, together with the main groups from its subordinate structure, have a management plan which is updated yearly. These plans translate NATO's strategic objectives into objectives for the armaments community and priorities are defined. A balance is found between national and NATO requirements, since defence procurement has remained very much a national responsibility.

The CNAD is currently focusing on a number of different areas: NATO's transformation process, in particular efforts to provide capablities quickly for shortfall areas; a planning framework to translate the Long Term Capability Requirements, as formluated by the Strategic Commanders, into armaments objectives and the identification of lead and supporting bodies; measures against terrorism, and weapons of mass destruction and their means of delivery, including a set of nine Defence Against Terrorism (DAT) areas; active support for various NATO partnerships and opening up to Partner participation.

The above is done with the help of a vast network of national and NATO experts and the assitance of modern IT means, including protected websites, which reduce the need for actual meetings and committee travel.

Logistics planning

In NATO - as is the case at a national level - logistics planning is an integral part of defence and operational planning. It aims to identify the different logistics capabilities that need to be acquired by members and NATO to support the NATO Level of Ambition (LOA) included in the Defence Planning Ministerial Guidance, and ensure that these capabilities are available to be used by the Strategic Commands for NATO-led operations.

Logistics planning serves as the basis for the overarching cooperative logistics effort in NATO (for all members except for France), with the aim of improving the integration of national and NATO logistics planning processes during peace, crisis and conflict. To identify the logistics inputs required by the NATO LOA and include them in the Defence Planning Ministerial Guidance, the Senior NATO Logisticians' Conference (SNLC) - NATO's senior body for all logistics issues - develops the NATO Logistics Vision and Objectives (V&O). This covers the same period as the defence planning process and aims to fully integrate logistics planning with NATO's other defence planning disciplines, as well as with other disciplines such as standardisation and operational planning.

At the force planning level, logistics planning consists in the identification of the different civil and military capabilities that members agree to acquire and to provide to NATO for its use during NATO-led operations. The management of these capabilities in-theatre is then undertaken by the Strategic Commands in the framework of the operational planning process.

Nuclear planning

To preserve peace and prevent coercion and any kind of war, the Alliance will maintain for the foreseeable future an appropriate mix of conventional and nuclear forces based in Europe. Both elements are essential and cannot substitute one for the other. The maintenance of political control of nuclear weapons under all circumstances is the first and most important principle of nuclear planning.

In the new security environment, the Alliance has radically reduced its reliance on nuclear forces for its security. Its strategy remains one of war prevention, but it is no longer dominated by the possibility of nuclear escalation. In keeping with NATO's overall goal of ensuring security and stability at the lowest possible level of forces, political decisions and resulting nuclear planning since the end of the Cold War have resulted in dramatic force reductions (over 85 percent) and far-reaching changes to planning procedures. NATO has terminated the practice of maintaining standing peacetime nuclear contingency plans and associated target lists for its sub-strategic nuclear forces, and has, instead, developed an adaptive nuclear planning capability. NATO's nuclear forces are, accordingly, not directed towards a specific threat; they do not target or hold at risk any country.

Nuclear planning must ensure that the Alliance's nuclear posture is perceived as a credible and effective element of NATO's strategy of war prevention. This requires forces that have the necessary characteristics, including appropriate flexibility and survivability, and capabilities to deal with a range of potential contingencies. The involvement of all NATO countries (except France) in the formulation of the Alliance's nuclear policy, in consultation, decision-making and nuclear planning, as well as the participation of the non-nuclear Allies in NATO's nuclear deterrent posture serve to demonstrate NATO solidarity and common commitment to war prevention.

C3 planning

The effective performance of NATO's political and military functions, requires the widespread utilisation of both NATO and national Consultation, Command and Control (C3) systems, services and facilities, supported by appropriate personnel and NATO-agreed doctrine, organisations and procedures. C3 systems include communications, information, navigation and identification systems as well as sensor and warning installation systems, designed and operated in a networked and integrated form to meet the needs of NATO. Individual C3 systems may be provided by NATO via common funded programmes, or by members, via national, multi-national or joint-funded co-operative programmes.

Co-ordinated C3 planning is an essential activity for the achievement of a NATO-wide cohesive, cost-effective, interoperable and secure C3 capability which can meet current and projected political and military requirements. It ensures that C3 activities conducted under all aspects of defence planning remain coherent throughout the life-cycle of systems and programmes, and that end-products and services match capability requirements.

C3 planning needs to encompass all elements needed for the achievement of capability. Capability does not just come from the provision of materiel (systems) and facilities, but also relies upon the existence of appropriate doctrine, organisation, training, logistics and personnel, and the achievement of appropriate interoperability. In addition, the achievement of required NATO C3 capability necessitates the application of a combination of the three core planning disciplines: resource, armaments and force planning. The C3 planning process has to influence and control the activities of these planning disciplines to ensure a degree of coherence between them.

Civil emergency planning

NATO civil emergency planning is a small scale, but relatively wide-ranging activity that touches on different aspects of civilian and military planning and operations. Its main roles consist of civil support for military and crisis response operations, support for national authorities in civil emergencies and the protection of civilian populations. It also focuses on improving civil preparedness for possible attacks with chemical, biological, or radiological agents.

As such, civil emergency planning has two basic dimensions: one dimension are the arrangements that are being made at the national and NATO-levels to protect civilian populations against the consequences of war, terrorist attacks, and other major incidents or natural disasters. These include operational arrangements, such as disaster response coordination at NATO HQ. The other dimension is the planning to ensure that civil resources can be put to systematic and effective use in support of Alliance strategy. In essence, this deals with the support that the civilian sector (e.g. transport, supply, communications) can give to the Alliance, primarily in terms of civil support to the military in planning and operations, but also in terms of direct civilian support to crisis response operations.

In sum, civil emergency planning aims to coordinate national planning activity to ensure the most effective use of civil resources in collective support of Alliance strategic objectives. It is a national responsibility and civil assets remain under national control at all times. However, at the NATO level, national intentions and capabilities are harmonised to ensure that jointly developed plans and procedures will work and that necessary assets are available.

Related disciplines

There are a number of other related disciplines, which are closely linked to the defence planning process. These include air defence planning, standardisation, intelligence, operational planning, and force generation.

In brief, air defence planning enables members to harmonise their national efforts with international planning related to air command and control and air defence weapons. NATO air defence provides a network of interconnected systems enabling aircraft and tactical missiles to be detected either by maritime and ground-based weapon systems or by interceptor aircraft. The extension of this air defence system with a Theatre Missile Defence System is currently being considered by NATO.

Standardisation is key to increasing the combined operational effectiveness of the military forces of the Alliance. It explores ways of improving cooperation and eliminating duplication in research, development, production, procurement and support of defence systems. As such, it forms an integral part of the Alliance's defence planning system.

Intelligence plays an important role in the defence planning process, in particular with the emergence of multidirectional and multidimensional security challenges such as terrorism and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. Improved intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance as well as strategic warning and assessment capacity for NATO are essential to ensure maximum warning and preparation time to counter military and terrorist attacks. Intelligence sets out the requirements for the improved provision, exchange and analysis of all-source political, economic, security and military intelligence, and closer coordination of the intelligence producers within the Alliance.

Successful military operations require the preparation of detailed plans to ensure that, to the extent possible, all the relevant factors have been carefully anticipated and weighed. The number of such factors is potentially very great and includes the size, location, and likely duration of an operation; the necessary command arrangements; the rules under which it will be conducted (the rules of engagement); any special requirements imposed by the terrain, weather, and the availability (or otherwise) of local support and the state of the local infrastructure; surmises about the intentions and capabilities of the adversary; the need to collaborate with other international organisations; possible humanitarian requirements; and so forth.

Operational planning allows NATO to prepare both for possible Article 5 situations and for crisis response operations like those NATO is conducting in the Balkans, Afghanistan, and the Mediterranean.

The Alliance has developed, and occasionally refines, an operational planning process that produces both advance (or contingency) plans and crisis response plans that is, plans developed in response to an actual or developing crisis. An essential element of this process is the requirement for political control and approval. The planning process needs to be flexible enough to accommodate iterative exchanges of political direction and military advice and to adapt plans to evolving political guidance during a crisis.

Force generation is the process by which Allies indicate what forces and capabilities they will make available, for what period of time, against a list of requirements that the military authorities have elaborated for a particular operation, in the light of an operation plan, or for special needs like rotations of the NATO Response Force.

NATO is seeking to tighten the links between defence planning, operation planning, and force generation so that, on the one hand, defence planning will be more rigorously conducted on the basis of likely future operational requirements and, on the other, operation planning and force generation will be more fully informed by information on what capabilities are, and are likely in the future to be, available. It is also improving the force generation process itself to make it more comprehensive and forward-looking.

The framework for NATO's defence planning process

In practical terms, there is no standard defence planning process or defence planning cycle per se. Each one of the seven principal disciplines are managed by a different NATO body and apply special procedures. They also contribute differently to the overall aim of providing the Alliance with the forces and capabilities to undertake the full range of its missions.

With the differences between the various components of the defence planning process and interrelated disciplines, the need for harmonisation and coordination is essential. While force planning has provided, to a certain extent, a basis for this harmonisation and coordination, NATO Heads of State and Government at the Istanbul Summit concluded that more was required. They therefore directed the Council in Permanent Session to produce for their consideration comprehensive political guidance in support of the Strategic Concept for all Alliance capabilities issues, planning disciplines and intelligence, responsive to the Alliance's requirements. They also directed that the interfaces between the respective Alliance planning disciplines, including operational planning, should be further analysed . Work on the comprehensive political guidance and a suitable management mechanism to ensure its implementation is ongoing.

Efforts to enhance and coordinate defence planning are not limited to just within the Alliance. NATO and the EU discuss this topic in the EU-NATO Capability Group, which aims to develop the capability requirements common to both organisations.