NATO - North Atlantic Treaty Organisation

Improving NATO’s strategic air- and sealift capabilities

Giving Alliance forces global reach

Presentation Ceremony - Boeing C-17 Globemaster III plane

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. Robust strategic air- and sealift capabilities are vital to ensure that NATO countries are able to deploy their forces and equipment rapidly to wherever they are needed.

The ability to reach out globally is particularly important today, as NATO takes on missions and operations in distant areas such as Afghanistan. By pooling 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.

  • Components

    In terms of airlift, there are two complementary initiatives:

    1. A multinational consortium of 14 countries is chartering Antonov An-124-100 transport aircraft as a Strategic Airlift Interim Solution (SALIS). SALIS provides assured access to up to six AN-124-100 aircraft (mission-ready within nine days in case of crisis) in support of NATO/EU operations. In order to pay for this assured access, SALIS partner nations have access to two aircraft with some prepayment of flying hours. If needed, nations also have access to additional AN-124-100, IL 76 and AN-225. SALIS flights started in February 2006 with a humanitarian aid mission to Pakistan for an earthquake relief operation. Since then the number of missions has risen to over 200 per year, fulfilling a variety of commitments in support of military and humanitarian operations. Today, support missions for forces in Afghanistan are predominant. The SALIS initiative is planned to continue until the end of 2014. Then nations will review their requirement as the Airbus A400m aircraft comes into service.
    2. Twelve nations (ten Allies and two partner countries) have acquired three C-17 Globemaster III transport aircraft in order to create a Strategic Airlift Capability (SAC). The SAC has been in operation since July 2009. Its operational arm, the Heavy Airlift Wing at Papa Airbase in Hungary, operates the aircraft. It is manned by multinational personnel and its missions support national requirements. Operations have included support to ISAF (Afghanistan), humanitarian relief in Haiti and Pakistan, African peacekeeping and assistance to the Polish authorities following the air disaster in Russia.

    For sealift, a multinational consortium of ten countries provides a special “roll-on/roll-off” ship Sealift Capability Package (SCP). The principal aim of this multinational group is to provide nations with assured access, price guarantee and the provision of mutual sealift support.

  • Evolution

    The decision to improve the Alliance's collective strategic air- and sealift capabilities was made at the 1999 Washington Summit, as part of the Defence Capabilities Initiative launched by NATO leaders.

    NATO military authorities identified a shortfall of 19 European strategic lift aircraft and “an overall significant European shortfall” in roll-on/roll-off, multiple purpose and container ships.

    Efforts to address these shortfalls were stepped up when the Defence Capabilities Initiative was transformed into the more focused Prague Capabilities Commitment at the 2002 NATO Summit in the Czech capital.

    This new programme sets firm and country-specific commitments to address capability shortfalls in eight key fields, including air- and sealift.

    At their annual spring meeting in Brussels in June 2003, NATO Defence Ministers signed letters declaring their intent to form multinational consortia to address the air- and sealift shortfalls.

    In December 2003, and at the Istanbul Summit in June 2004, these were translated into specific agreements between a number of NATO countries to pool their resources and provide the Alliance with the required air- and sealift capabilities.

  • Mechanisms

    The signatories of the three initiatives have established multinational bodies to coordinate strategic lift, allowing for cost effectiveness and avoidance of duplication of effort.

    SALIS is controlled by a Steering Board/Partnership Committee. It is an interim outsized cargo capability that comprises the strategic airlift assets, available under specific terms and conditions as laid down in a memorandum of understanding. The capability is coordinated on a day-to-day basis by the Strategic Airlift Coordination Centre, which is collocated with the Movement Coordination Centre Europe (MCCE) based in Eindhoven, The Netherlands. The NATO Maintenance and Supply Agency (NAMSA) provides support by managing the SALIS contract and the SALIS Partnership.

    The Multinational SAC Steering Board has the overall responsibility for the guidance and oversight of the SAC programme and formulates the programme’s requirements. The NATO Airlift Management Programme exercises overall responsibility for the guidance, execution, control, and supervision of the Airlift Management Programme (AMP). The NATO Airlift Management Programme is responsible for the acquisition, management and support of the AMP and to provide administrative support to the Heavy Airlift Wing at Papa Airbase.

    The multinational sealift capability is coordinated on a day-to-day basis by the MCCE. The overall governance of the SCP is provided by members of the ten participating nations in the form of the Multinational Sealift Steering Committee, which meets regularly to provide direction and guidance based on a Multinational Implementation Arrangement.