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RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany: NATO air forces' partnership is strong and poised to grow even stronger over the long haul, said Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. T. Michael Moseley before a congregation of air force commanders from 25 NATO nations.
General Moseley said NATO air forces face similar circumstances, including increasing costs, decreasing budgets and the need to recapitalize and modernize aging aircraft inventories, and a changed international security environment since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. So he described some of the U.S. and NATO efforts to transform the way Airmen train and fight alongside each other.
He cited NATO successes with Air Policing in the Baltics, the International Security Assistance Force providing close air support in Afghanistan, and NATO airmen poised to support the NATO Response Force in regional hot spots such as Africa.
“Though we have some new NATO member countries, we maintain common bonds as Airmen and as NATO partners, and the NATO alliance may be even more important today than it was during the Cold War,” said General Moseley, citing the long global war on terrorism and emerging trans-national threats as reasons that “add urgency to our efforts to increase interoperability among our nations and air forces.”
Yet there remains a need for continuous improvement in areas such as the interoperability and modernization of the associated NATO-wide Air Command and Control System. Also, NATO also looks to combined training opportunities such as the Tactical Leadership Program conducted in Belgium to further hone the warfighting skills of NATO airmen.
“We will continue to look for new ways to strengthen and reinforce partnerships with our NATO counterparts, and new ways to collectively bring kinetic and non-kinetic effects to bear faster and with more precision,” said General Moseley during his recent visit here.
Such strength and versatility is necessary, the general said, noting the demand NATO faces in confronting an enemy not from a nation-state, but one that can emerge anytime, anyplace through terrorist acts such as the bombing of Kobar Towers in Saudi Arabia or the U.S. Embassy in Kenya.
Thus far, General Moseley said, NATO has risen to the challenge and will continue to do so.
“It's a given that our air forces will always be there,” the general said. “Our forces are strategic and global in nature and there are no boundaries or barriers to prevent us from further success against enemy terrorists, regardless of tactics or terrain they choose to follow. We are all looking for ways to reinforce the impact air power can have for a nation and the NATO alliance. Together we stand strong.”
