Madrid summit to adopt new NATO force plan

The draft principles of NATO's new force plan were reviewed at the allied defence ministers' meeting in Brussels on 16–17 February. (NATO)

NATO will adapt its force planning procedures in the short term to “dynamically deter” Russia's deployments of military forces along the allies' eastern flank and elsewhere on its territory “as long as required”, according to NATO officials. New principles will underpin the revised force plan.

The draft principles were reviewed by NATO defence ministers at a meeting in Brussels on 16–17 February and will receive political approval from allied leaders during NATO's summit in Madrid in June.

The principles “fundamentally shift the allies towards more active and fluid defence and deterrence (D&D) postures”, an allied diplomat said on 17 February. “We need a new force plan, a model, that moves us away from a focus on regions [across the allies] to one that takes into account defence of NATO as a whole.”

With 25 of the 30 allies having deployed, or planning to deploy, maritime or land assets to the eastern flank in response to Russia's military posturing, NATO's ability to shift its home defence assets around quickly is paramount. “Everybody agrees we need to do this,” said the diplomat.

A NATO source told Janes on 18 February that the new force plan will definitively move the allies away from their expeditionary planning since the end of the Cold War “to one that is fully adapted to the collective defence requirement”.

According to the source, the new force plan intends for two broad goals.