logistics-e

Logistics support

for NATO operations

February 2006

Logistics support for NATO operations

Logistics is of vital importance for any military operation. Without it, operations could not be

carried out and sustained. This is especially evident with NATO’s out-of-area operations.

The new missions of the Alliance are radically different from those it faced during the Cold War.

NATO has now been involved in out-of-area operations for over a decade. During the 1990s,

these operations were still in Europe, but the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States

led to NATO foreign ministers removing all geographical limits to NATO’s area of operations at

their meeting in Reykjavik in May 2002.

This poses obvious logistic challenges and NATO logistics doctrine is evolving accordingly

while at the same time various initiatives are underway to develop the required capabilities. Logistics de?ned

NATO de?nes logistics as the science of planning and carrying out the movement and

maintenance of forces. Under this agreed de?nition, logistics covers the following areas

of military operations:

? design and development, acquisition, storage, transport, distribution, maintenance, evacuation and disposal of materiel;

? transport of personnel;

? acquisition, construction, maintenance, operation and disposition of facilities;

? acquisition or provision of services;

? medical and health service support.

These areas involve a wide range of services and responsibilities subdivided into the input

and output sides of logistics:

? production or acquisition aspects of logistics (research, design, development, manufacture and acceptance of equipment). This is primarily a national responsibility. However, co-

operation and coordination take place within NATO in many areas, largely under the

auspices of the Conference of National Armament Directors and its subordinate bodies.

? consumer or operational aspects of logistics concerned with the supply and support functions of forces, falling mainly under the responsibility of the Senior NATO Logisticians’

Conference and the NATO Pipeline Committee. Other bodies, such as the Committee of

the Chiefs of Military Medical Services in NATO, advise the Military Committee on logistical

matters in their speci?c areas of responsibility.

1

In the 1990s, NATO recognized the changed security environment it was operating in as a result of enlargement, Partnership for Peace (PfP) and other cooperation programmes with Central and Eastern Europe, cooperation with other international organisations, and peace sup-port operations in the Balkans. All these developments present signi? cant and new challenges as well as opportunities to NATO’s logistics staffs.

2

NATO Pipeline System

The NATO Pipeline System (NPS)

was set up during the Cold War to

supply Alliance forces with fuel.

Although collectively referred to

as one system, the NPS actually

consists of ten separate and distinct

military storage and distribution

systems: Iceland, Italy, Greece,

Turkey (two separate systems - east

and west), Norway, Portugal, the

United Kingdom, the North European

Pipeline System (NEPS) located in

both Denmark and Germany, and the

largest system, the Central Europe

Pipeline System (CEPS) in Belgium,

France, Germany, Luxembourg and

the Netherlands.

The NPS in total consists of some

11 500 kilometers of pipeline running

through 13 NATO nations with its as-

sociated depots, connected air bases,

truck and rail loading stations, pump

stations, re? neries and entry points.

Bulk distribution is achieved using

facilities provided from the common-

funded NATO Security Investment

Programme (NSIP). The networks are

controlled by national organisations,

with the exception of CEPS, which is

a multinational system. CEPS encompasses NATO assets for the movement, storage and delivery of fuel in Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. These are known as the host nations, with Canada and the United States designated as user nations. CEPS is managed by the Central Europe Pipeline Management Organisation (CEPMO). Collectively, the host and user nations comprise the member countries participating in CEPMO. The system is designed and managed to meet operational requirements in central Europe in peace, crisis and con? ict, but is also used commercially under strict safeguards, supplying jet fuel to several major civil airports. The day-to-day operation of CEPS is the task of the Central Europe Pipeline Management Agency located in Versailles, France. In addition to the above elements of the NPS, there are also fuel systems in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Spain. While those in the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland are national systems, NATO military requirements have been incorporated into NSIP-funded projects which are being implemented. The Spanish sys-tem is purely national.In order to support the new mis-sions of the Alliance, the emphasis has shifted away from static pipeline infrastructure to the rapidly deploy-able support of NATO’s expeditionary activities. To this end, NATO has de-veloped a modular concept whereby all fuel requirements can be satis? ed through a combination of 13 discrete but compatible modules which can receive, store and transport fuel in any theatre of operation. The concept also enables both NATO and Partner nations to combine their capabilities to provide a multinational solution to meet all fuel requirements.

Evolution of NATO logistics doctrine

During the Cold War, NATO logistics was limited to the North Atlantic area. The Alliance planned the linear defence of West Germany with national corps supported by national support elements.Lines of communication within Europe extended westwards and northwards to Channel and North Sea ports. Planning called for reinforcements and supplies to be sealifted from the

United States and Canada to these same ports and to be airlifted to European bases to pick up pre-positioned equipment.

The NATO Pipeline System evolved to supply fuel to NATO forces in Europe.

The NATO Maintenance and Supply Agency (NAMSA) was created in Luxembourg, initially to aid European countries in their Foreign Military Sales purchase of US combat aircraft in the 1950s.

NATO Maintenance and

Supply Agency

NAMSA plays a key role in logistics. The agency is the executive arm

of the NATO Maintenance and Supply Organisation, which provides the structure for logistics support

of selected weapons systems in

the national inventories of two or more NATO nations, through the common procurement and supply

of spare parts and the provision of maintenance and repair facilities. NAMSA’s task is to provide logistic services in support of weapon and equipment systems held in common by NATO nations, in order to pro-mote materiel readiness, to improve the ef? ciency of logistic operations and to effect savings through con-solidated procurement in the areas

guration management.

missile, the Multiple Launch Rocket

System (MLRS), and the CL-289

un-manned aerial vehicle. In future,

NAMSA will provide in service support

for the deployable Medium Extended

Air Defense System (MEADS). NAM-

SA is responsible for the depot level

maintenance of the NATO Airborne

Warning and Control System, the

Alliance’s largest commonly funded

programme, which is run by the NATO

Airborne Early Warning and Control

Programme Management Agency

in Brunssum, the Netherlands.

NAMSA is in charge of the storage

depot for the common equipment

of a deployable Combined Joint Task

Force in Taranto, southern Italy, the

main depot for all NATO’s deployable

assets. The agency also procured

equipment for the Deployable Joint

Task Force of the NATO Reaction

Force.

The agency shares responsibility

with the NATO Communications and

Information Systems (CIS) Services

Agency for stored common deploy-

able CIS equipment. NAMSA ensures

the commonality of non-CIS elements

like trucks used to carry shelters to

house CIS equipment.

NAMSA has developed modern

materiel management and procure-

ment techniques, including the Stock

Holding and Assets Requirements

Exchange (SHARE) and Common

Item Materiel Management (COM-

MIT). The Agency also provides sup-

port for the Group of National Direc-

tors on Codi? cation, which manages

the NATO Codi? cation System and

logistics support for deployed NATO

forces. Under the NATO Codi? cation

System, items of supply are given a

single NATO stock number.

of supply, maintenance, calibration,

procurement, transportation, techni-

cal support, engineering services and

con?

Since its creation, the agency has

provided acquisition support for the

Nike, Hawk and Patriot surface-to-air

missile systems, the TOW anti-tank

4

Balkan experience

NATO’s deployment of the Implementation Force (IFOR) to Bosnia and Herzegovina in Decem-

ber 1995 revealed shortcomings in Alliance logistic support for peace support operations. The

logistic footprint was very large, featuring redundant and inef? cient national logistic structures. Experiences from IFOR resulted in major revisions to PfP and NATO logistic policies and pro-

cedures and highlighted the need for greater multinationality in logistics.

IFOR’s 60,000 troops in Bosnia and Herzegovina were deployed and supplied nationally by

road, rail, ships and aircraft over relatively short lines of communication. While the force was

able to rely on some host nation support - civil and military assistance from neighbouring

nations and even Bosnia and Herzegovina itself - it relied heavily on national support elements

with redundant logistic support capabilities, reducing the overall ef? ciency and effectiveness of

the overall force.

The Stabilisation Force (SFOR) which replaced IFOR and the Kosovo Force (KFOR) which

deployed to the Serb province in June 1999 suffered from the same stovepiped national logistic

support as IFOR. For example, KFOR had ? ve ? eld hospitals, which most NATO countries

include in their logistic structures, one for each brigade, when fewer would have been suf? cient

for the force.

Logistics for Afghanistan

After the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, NATO could no longer afford to

do logistics in the same way it did in the Balkans. It is now planning to be able to conduct rapid deployments far out of area, stretching lines of communication. In addition, it is not necessarily expecting host nation support, civil and military assistance from nations in the area it deploys.

NATO already faces some of these limitations with the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan, which is land-locked and far from Europe. The long lines of communica-

tion inside the country are hampered by rough terrain, unpaved roads and security threats.

The force therefore relies heavily on airlift for movement, reinforcements and supplies. Most

of its airlift requirements are provided by the United States or by Russian aircraft leased by

Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE) through the NATO Maintenance and

Supply Agency (NAMSA) in Luxembourg.

Tactical ? xed and rotary-wing aircraft are crucial for the expansion of the ISAF mission beyond

Kabul because it can take days to travel from the capital to the provinces by road, which can

even be impossible in the winter if there is snow. This expansion began in January 2005

with the establishment of provincial reconstruction teams (PRTs) north of the Afghan capital,

followed by more of the mixed civilian-military teams to the west and now to the south of Kabul. Forward support bases in Mazar-e-Sharif in the north and Herat in the west act as “hubs” from

which “spokes” emanate to the PRTs themselves. The expansion to the north of the country

required the commitment by NATO nations of six medium lift transports equivalent to the C-130 aircraft, in addition to 18 helicopters.

5

Strengthening logistic capabilities

Rapid deployments out of area require deployable logistic support units within combat forma-tions, assured access to strategic lift and deployable logistic assets. These are being covered by the Prague Capabilities Commitment made by NATO leaders at their November 2002 sum-mit in the Czech capital. One of the four major shortfalls this initiative aims to overcome is in deployability and sustainability. Speci? cally, it seeks to improve NATO’s strategic air and sealift, air-to-air refueling, and combat service support capabilities.

Most progress has been made in the area of strategic lift. Two consortia have been set up, one covering airlift and the other sealift.

Airlift

The German-led airlift consortium includes Canada, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Hungary, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and Turkey. At the June 2004 Istanbul Summit, defence ministers of these 15 countries signed a memorandum of understanding aiming to achieve an operational airlift capacity for outsize cargo by 2005 using up to six chartered An-124-100 transport aircraft available on-call. In ad-dition, the defence ministers of Bulgaria and Romania signed a letter of intent to acquire this capability. On 10 November 2005, the contract with Ruslan Salis, the commercial provider of the aircraft, was signed.

Sealift

Norway leads the Multinational Sealift Steering Committee, which includes Canada, Denmark, Hungary, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and the United Kingdom. The sealift agreement signed by their defence ministers in Brussels in December 2003 is based on four components:? three ships available through assured access contracts;

? one ship available on an ad hoc basis from Norway;

? one or two ships on full-time charter from Denmark; and

? the residual capacity of four British ships.

At the Istanbul Summit, the defence ministers of Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Romania and Slovenia signed a supplementary letter of intent on strategic sealift.

7

NATO support for

African Union in Darfur

The Alliance provided airlift and

logistic support to the African Union

(AU) deployment to Darfur as it

expanded its presence in an attempt

to end the violence there. NATO,

along with the European Union

(EU), airlifted seven battalions of AU

troops, plus 49 civilian policemen,

starting in July 2005. Three of the

battalions were Nigerian, three were Rwandan, and one was Senegalese. Six of these battalions were trans-ported by NATO.The NATO airlift was coordinated by Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE) in Mons, Belgium, while the EU airlift was coordinated by the European Airlift Centre at Eindhoven airbase in the Netherlands. A special air movement cell at the AU headquarters in Addis Ababa, supported by NATO and the EU, coordinated incoming troops on the ground in Africa.NATO also helped train AU personnel in key headquarters functions, includ-ing command and control, logistics and planning.NATO extended its support of the AU until May 2006 so that it can also airlift the rotation of peacekeepers out of Darfur as well as provide ad-ditional training.Cooperation with Russia One of the areas of cooperation within the NATO-Russia Council (NRC) created in May 2002 is logis-tics. The NRC Ad Hoc Working Group (AHWG) on Logistics is the forum for discussion and development of such cooperation. It was created in De-cember 2004 to replace NRC expert groups on logistics, air transport and air-to-air refueling.A memorandum of understanding on logistics cooperation between Russia and the NATO Maintenance and Sup-ply Organisation is being ? nalised, as

is a NATO-Russia Framework Agree-ment on Air Transport.During 2004, Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE) and the Russian Ministry of Defence negotiated a ? nal draft of the NATO-

Russia Framework Agreement on

Air Transport, whose purpose is to

support humanitarian and rescue

missions, exercises and operations

authorized by the United Nations.

In Exercise Steadfast Move 2005,

held in Izmir, Turkey, in March 2005,

SHAPE and Russia examined pro-

cedures for the use of Russian air

transport assets. The re-sults fed

directly into the development of the

Air Transport Implementing Arrange-

ments by SHAPE and the Russian

Ministry of Defence.

The AHWG’s 2005 and 2006 Logistic

Action Plans include the development

of a host nation support agreement to

facilitate support to ISAF offered by

Russian President Vladimir Putin and

currently being negotiated by NATO

and Russia.Under the 2005 Logistic Action Plan, seminars and workshops looked at such issues as logistic information and e-commerce, common infor-mation technology solutions, military medical support, fuels interopera-bility, operational logistics, maritime logistics, and support for Operation Active Endeavour, which Russia will join in 2006. Activities for 2006 will focus on the logistic aspects of defence against terrorism, multi-national logistic support solutions for peacekeeping operations, and logistic transformation. Furthermore, detailed planning will take place in 2006 leading to a fuels interoperability demonstration in 2007 and an exercise in 2008.

8Logistic support for

disaster relief

In 2005, NATO provided logistic

support for disaster relief operations

in Asia and North America. It airlifted

aid to Pakistan after the September

earthquake, to the United States after

Hurricane Katrina, and to Asia after

the tsunami at the beginning of

the year.

NATO airlifted over 1,000 tons of

relief supplies to Pakistan from the

UN High Commissioner for Refugees

(UNHCR), Alliance member nations

and other countries. The airlift was

conducted by NATO Airborne Early

Warning & Control (NAEW&C) Force

Training Cargo Aircraft, US Air Force

C-17s, a Russian Antonov, and

C-130s ? ying from air bases in Ram-

stein, Germany, and Incirlik, Turkey.

NATO member nations provided

helicopters in Pakistan itself.In addition, NATO deployed elements of the NATO Response Force (NRF) to Pakistan. A Deployable Joint Task Force headquarters from Joint Com-mand Lisbon, which has operational command of the current rotation of the NRF, was sent to Islamabad to help the UN High Commissioner for Refugees with planning, command

and control, and logistics. Other NRF elements sent to Pakistan include a Spanish headquarters; a battalion of engineers from Spain, Poland and Italy with equipment to help clear roads and set up facilities; a mobile, multi-national medical unit; and three water puri? cation plants from Lithuania.NATO aircraft delivered aid to the United States in September following the North Atlantic Council’s decision to help in the disaster relief effort following Hurricane Katrina, which struck the US Gulf Coast on 29 Au-gust. The Council decided to commit the NRF and the NAEW&C Force to the relief effort. NATO established an air bridge between Ramstein and Little Rock, Arkansas, to deliver some 189 tons of aid from Alliance member nations, which was coordinated be-tween NATO’s Euro-Atlantic Disaster Response Coordination Cell and the US Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Fifteen British, Greek and Italian

C-130 and French and German C-160

transport aircraft assigned to the NRF

? ew the aid to Ramstein, from where

it was ferried to the US by NAEW&C

Training and Cargo Aircraft,

a Canadian A310, a Turkish C-130,

and an Antonov An-124 volunteered

by Ukraine.

The Hurricane Katrina and Pakistani

earthquake relief operations were

commanded by Supreme Headquar-ters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE) in Mons, Belgium, through the NRF headquarters, currently NATO’s joint headquarters in Lisbon.Less well-known was NATO’s involve-ment in the tsunami relief operation in the Far East at the beginning of 2005. This was mainly in the transport and logistics area and included the char-tering by the NATO Maintenance and Supply Agency of humanitarian relief ? ights from Russia and Azerbaijan for Austrian non-governmental organiza-tions. In January and February 2005, seven ? ights were organized using Russian Antonov and Azerbaijani Ilyushin Il-76 transport aircraft, which airlifted food, medical supplies, water puri? cation equipment, and vehicles from Vienna to Colombo, Sri Lanka.The Alliance donated 565 meters of bridging equipment to Indonesia. The equipment was former British and Dutch materiel stockpiled in Ploce, Croatia, to support NATO’s Stabilization Force (SFOR), whose mission was taken over by the Euro-pean Union in December 2004. The Netherlands acted as the lead nation, with British support, transferring equipment by ship to Banda Aceh, Sumatra, for use in the reconstruction effort there. The bridges are valued at over six million euros.

Multinational units

One of the factors limiting the sustainability of NATO peace support operations is the use of national support elements. Alliance logistic doctrine foresees cooperation and multinationality. The latter includes the creation of multinational integrated logistic units (MILUs) formed by two or more nations, under the operational control of a force commander at the joint force or com-ponent level, to provide logistic support to a multinational force. Belgium, Luxembourg, Greece and Austria formed the ? rst such unit, the BELUGA transport unit, to support the Stabilization Force (SFOR) which succeeded IFOR in December 1996. Subsequently, a few MILUs have been formed on an ad hoc basis and for a short duration in SFOR and KFOR.

To achieve economies of scale, NATO is now pooling its logistics resources in the form of standing MILUs. In April 2005, Bulgaria, Canada, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, and Partner-ship for Peace (PfP) member Croatia agreed to form and sustain the ? rst such unit, a Joint Theatre Movement Staff (JTMS) MILU. The unit will provide movement staff support to the Mul-tinational Joint Logistic Centre during NATO operations and exercises. It will develop movement and transportation plans and prioritize movement requirements in theatre, as well as operate

a Joint Theatre Movement Coordination Centre if required as part of a Combined Joint Task Force headquarters.

This capability was proven during the last Steadfast Move exercise, which is used to train national movement planners on the Allied Deployment and Movement System (ADAMS), a decision support system used to plan and coordinate NATO multinational force deployments. Exercise Steadfast Move is held annually either at the Turkish PfP logistic training centre in Izmir, Turkey, which was the case in 2005, or at The Hague location of the NATO Consultation, Command and Control Agency, which developed the ADAMS software. The initial proof of concept for the JTMS MILU allows the unit to be af? liated potentially with a six-month rotation of the NATO Response Force or to one of the High Readiness Forces (Land) available for Alliance missions.

The JTMS MILU was ? rst proposed in 2002, when most of the countries which form the unit were PfP but not yet NATO members. A second MILU is being set up by Romania to provide

force support engineering.

NATO Public Diplomacy Division 1110 Brussels

Belgium

natodoc@hq.nato.int

www.nato.int

BGR1-LOG-ENG-0206

? NATO 2006? S H A P E