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NATO member countries have pooled their resources to acquire special aircraft and ships that will give the Alliance the capability to transport troops, equipment and supplies across the globe.
Strategic air- and sealift capabilities are vital to ensure NATO countries can deploy their forces and equipment quickly to wherever they are needed.
This is particularly important today, as NATO takes on missions and operations in distant areas such as Afghanistan, Iraq or Africa. By pooling their financial resources NATO countries have made significant financial savings and have the potential of acquiring assets collectively that would be prohibitively expensive to purchase as individual countries.
In terms of airlift, there are two complementary initiatives: a) a multinational consortium of 16 countries, led by Germany, is chartering Antonov An-124-100 transport aircraft, as a Strategic Airlift Interim Solution (SALIS); b) 16 countries have also agreed to launch contract negotiations for the purchase of three or four C-17 transport aircraft, in order to create a Strategic Airlift Capability (SAC).
For sealift, a multinational consortium of nine countries, led by Norway, is chartering special “roll-on/roll-off” ships.
Strategic air- and sealift were both covered by the Defence Capabilities Initiative launched by NATO Heads of State and Government at the 1999 Washington Summit. They were carried over into the more focused Prague Capabilities Commitment made by Alliance Heads of State and Government at the Prague Summit in 2002.
More...The signatories of the three initiatives have established multinational bodies to coordinate strategic lift, allowing for cost effectiveness and to avoid duplication of effort.
