16 November 1998

TEXT: DEFENSE SECRETARY COHEN ON NATO'S DEFENSE TRANSFORMATION

(Says Washington summit presents "unique opportunity") (1930)



Washington -- Defense Secretary Cohen says the Washington Summit, to
be held in April to mark the 50th anniversary of NATO, "presents a
unique opportunity" for the alliance to focus on transforming its
military capabilities to create a force prepared for the challenges of
the next 50 years and the missions of the 21st Century.


"We need a new NATO for the new century," the secretary said, "one
that allows us to seize opportunities and meet the challenges of the
future, one that is designed for the missions ahead."


He told 60 participants from the 16 NATO nations plus Hungary, Poland,
and the Czech Republic attending the Conference on Transforming NATO's
Defense Capabilities that because alliance members are modernizing and
restructuring at different rates and according to differing national
visions, "We are not as effective as we need to be as an alliance." In
a speech delivered November 13 in Norfolk, Virginia, the secretary
urged the crafting of a common operational vision for the alliance
that includes four core capabilities: mobility, effective engagement,
survivability, and sustainability.


Cohen said achieving these core capabilities requires responsive
information collection, processing and dissemination;
interoperability; and joint alliance exploitation of technological
innovations.


Besides transforming the physical capabilities of the alliance, he
said, "We must transform the way we think about operational challenges
and how we move promising concepts from the desktop to the
battlefield."


The secretary also stressed the importance of not letting the April
summit be merely a paper exercise or "a flash of rhetoric for our 50th
anniversary that is then left to gather dust."


Following is the text of Cohen's prepared remarks:



(begin transcript)



Thank you, Admiral (Harold) Gehman for that gracious introduction, and
thank you for your superb leadership as USACOM (U.S. Atlantic Command,
Commander-in-Chief) and SACLANT (Supreme Allied Commander, Atlantic).
Distinguished leaders from across the Alliance, thank you for being
here and for your commitment to this process.


I would like to take a moment to honor the memory of Major General
Istvan Szalai who was tragically lost this week. General Szalai was an
original founder of the Partnership Coordination Cell and crucial
figure in the transformation of the Hungarian armed forces. He was an
officer with a bright future and our alliance will miss his vision and
leadership.


Two days ago, on America's Veterans's Day, I joined in honoring all
those who have served their nation in war. As in cities and towns
across the Alliance, we also marked the 80th anniversary of the end of
World War I. One who was there on the front on November 11, 1918
described the moment the guns fell silent; how soldiers on both sides
slowly, cautiously lifted their heads, how for the first time in four
years they were able to stand up outside their squalid trenches.


But, in the years that followed, that hopeful moment of peace was lost
by leaders who failed to see the truth of their common destiny and see
the necessity that free people stand up and defend one another. As a
result, less than 30 years later Europe was staggering to the
conclusion of an even more terrible conflict and watching as a shadow
once again lengthened over the continent. But this time the western
democracies did stand up together, before it was too late. In creating
NATO, we at last embraced the concept of collective defense, an idea
that has been at the core of our transatlantic partnership ever since.


Today, the shadow of a global conflict no longer threatens us. Our
Alliance is strong, successful, and growing. Europe is free and
undivided for the first time in history. And our values are advancing
on every continent. At the same time, the world remains dangerous, a
landscape of rogue regimes, rekindled ethnic hatreds, and the
proliferation of dangerous weapons.


Fortunately, we know that the same cooperation and determination that
created NATO and carried us through 50 years of Cold War can guide us
through the challenges ahead. But while our fundamental security
principles endure, our forces must be transformed to suit this new
landscape.


We need a new NATO for the new century; one that allows us to seize
opportunities and meet the challenges of the future, one that is
designed for the missions ahead. As the famous Italian strategist,
General Giulio Douhet said, "Victory smiles upon those who anticipate
the changes in the character of war, not upon those who wait to adapt
themselves after the changes occur."


In five months, our Heads of State will mark the 50th anniversary of
the most successful military alliance in history. In addition to
commemorating the past, the Washington Summit presents a unique
opportunity for the future; for the alliance to focus on transforming
its defense capabilities for the challenges of the next 50 years.


Our experience in Bosnia has been a significant success in both
humanitarian and geo-political terms, but it also revealed that NATO's
transformation from a fixed, positional defense to a flexible, mobile
defense is incomplete. Indeed, IFOR (Implementation Force) and SFOR
(Stabilization Force) suggest that should we be forced to operate
outside alliance territory in the future, we should expect to do so
without preexisting communications, logistics, headquarters, or other
infrastructure. To merely maintain a force designed to defend against
Warsaw Pact aggression, or to make only superficial adjustments, would
be a serious dereliction of our duty to our soldiers, our nations, our
alliance, and our future. We must seize the historic opportunity of
the Washington Summit to propel this necessary transformation.


It is certainly true that each nation here is making individual
progress toward that goal.


But because we are modernizing and restructuring at different rates
and with differing national visions, we are not as effective as we
need to be as an alliance. To move forward, we must build upon the
emerging consensus evident at (the September 1998 NATO Defense
Ministerial in) Vilamoura (Portugal) by creating a "common operational
vision" and including that vision as part of the revised (NATO)
Strategic Concept.


We must craft our common operational vision to include four core
capabilities: Mobility; Effective engagement; Survivability, and;
Sustainability. We must be mobile enough to rapidly project joint
forces and joint assistance. We must engage effectively by delivering
the right assets when and where they are needed. We must enhance our
survivability by improving our ability to protect our forces from
terrorism and from chemical, biological, and electronic attacks.


And we must increase our sustainability by ensuring our ability to
deliver supplies that can meet any requirement.


Achieving these core capabilities will, in turn, require three
"enablers:" Responsive information collection, processing and
dissemination; Interoperability, and; Joint Alliance exploitation of
technological innovations.


In practical terms, our immediate focus must be on communications and
logistics. A military force is only as effective as its flow of
information, and NATO must develop a communications capability for the
21st Century if we are to remain effective. In the short term, let us
agree at the Summit to field specific C3 (Command, Control and
Communications) capabilities. In the long term, our Heads of States
can work toward a specific timetable for the development and
implementation of a single, integrated C3 architecture.


With respect to logistics, we have learned from experience that Cold
War-style preparations are not useful for missions like IFOR and SFOR
because they are not deployable.


As a short-term Summit objective, individual nations should ensure
that an adequate deployable logistics capability exists in their force
structure. Our commanders must have the ability to quickly locate and
move assets. Over the longer term, I ask the Senior NATO Logisticians
Conference to consider creative solutions, like a multi-national
logistics center, which our Heads of State can bless in April.


In addition to transforming our physical capabilities, we must
transform the way we think about operational challenges and how we
move promising concepts from the desktop to the battlefield. To begin
this process, we must identify those critical operational challenges
we face in each of the core and enabling capabilities.


A revised Strategic Concept, and innovative Summit initiatives on
defense capabilities, will require equally innovative processes for
their implementation. We must prioritize, coordinate, and integrate
our work to ensure that what the Strategic Concept says results in
actions that improve our national and alliance defense capabilities.
As I suggested in Vilamoura, a High Level Steering Group, modeled on
the DGP (Defense Group of Proliferation) or SLG (Senior Level Group),
could serve as an effective mechanism. I am not implying that we
abandon existing committees, but rather use this group to ensure that
the vision of the Strategic Concept -- mobility, effective engagement,
sustainability, and survivability -- are better reflected in the daily
work of the C3 Board and the Senior NATO Logisticians Conference.


These changes will require our common commitment. We can best achieve
these goals by learning from each other. Each nation here has much
teach, and each has much to learn.


And through this collaborative process, the alliance looks to you to
develop specific recommendations that can be refined in the coming
weeks, reviewed in Brussels in December, adopted at the 50th
Anniversary Summit next April, and implemented in the coming years.


Our goal is nothing less than the transformation of our military
capabilities, creating 21st Century forces that are designed,
equipped, and prepared for 21st Century missions. Forces that can be
combined into a single, powerful, interoperable unit. A unit that can
accomplish any mission that the people of our alliance direct us to
undertake. These are ambitious goals, but no more difficult than all
we have accomplished together in our first half century.


We cannot allow this effort to be a paper exercise, a flash of
rhetoric for our 50th anniversary that is then left to gather dust.
Communique's and good intentions will do little for the soldier in the
field. The Dutch colonel commanding a multinational brigade in some
future conflict will care little what we said today, but he will care
deeply that his battalions can work together in battle. The German
sergeant directing the supply of rations to 10,000 refugees will care
little if our discussions were diplomatically correct, but he will
care greatly that he can communicate with the Turkish transport
bringing those supplies. And the Greek platoon leader targeting air
support will care little that we issued a statement of high minded
propositions, but he will care profoundly that his computer is
compatible with that of the French pilot above him.


So make no mistake, the lives of our troops and the future success of
our alliance depend on what you do today and in the months ahead. Let
the next generation of leaders of our alliance gather 50 years hence,
as NATO approaches it 100th anniversary, and say that we stood up and
fulfilled our duty to prepare for the future. Let them note that when
the world changed, we had the foresight to change with it. Let them
look back on a second 50 years of progress and cooperation. And on
that distant day, let all the people of our Alliance celebrate a full
century of peace and stability.


Thank you all very much.



(end transcript)

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