• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Excelitas Qioptiq banner

BATTLESPACE Updates

   +44 (0)77689 54766
   

  • Home
  • Features
  • News Updates
  • Company Directory
  • About
  • Subscribe
  • Contact
  • Media Pack 2022

COLIN POWELL REINFORCES MYERS STATEMENT

May 24, 2002 by

COLIN POWELL REINFORCES MYERS STATEMENT

16 May 02. NATO is as relevant today as it has been in the past, but the alliance needs to develop its capabilities to combat global terrorism and other new threats, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell told NATO foreign ministers gathered in Iceland May 14 and 15. This statement reinforces the remarks made by General Richard Myers, Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff quoted in our lead story, Don’t Mention The War’, in the April issue

“We all need to have highly mobile, sustainable forces with modern combat capabilities — forces that can get to the fight, wherever it is, and carry out a mission with efficiency and precision,” Powell said in Reykjavik.

Specifically, he noted, NATO needs more airlift capability. “The kinds of challenges NATO may be facing in the future won’t always be located in Central Europe. NATO has to have the ability to move to other places.”

During the two-day meeting, Powell said the NATO allies reaffirmed their commitment to defeat terrorism and committed their nations to strengthening both national and collective capacities for doing so. He said greater investment is needed in communications and intelligence capabilities and navigation devices that can provide precise information about a potential opponent and their
own forces.

NATO’s Defense Capabilities Initiative, announced at the 1999 50th anniversary summit in Washington, D.C., listed nearly 60 specific modernization initiatives. Powell recommended that between now and the Prague summit in November, the allies pick five or six capabilities to focus on and invest in.

The Untied States, with the largest defense budget of all, continues to add more money to deal with today and tomorrow’s threats.

“We think that all of our colleagues in NATO should be doing likewise, not just making sure that they are spending adequate amounts for their defense, but making sure they spend it wisely.” he said.

Operations in Afghanistan demonstrate that NATO “has a bright military future,” Powell said. Some 14 NATO nations are there, “not necessarily in a NATO capacity,” but they’re “bringing NATO capability, bringing NATO experience.”

Seven of those 14 NATO nations are involved in combat, he said. Working within NATO, he added, these nations have learned to understand modern doctrine, to work with one another, to operate on a battlefield with other countries’ forces that speak different languages and have different equipment.

NATO Secretary-General Lord George Robertson echoed Powell’s call to modernize capabilities in his remarks at the ministerial. He said NATO transformed after the Cold War to build a new kind of security across Europe and a second time, to overcome instability in Bosnia.

They also agreed on the importance of pushing ahead new military capabilities urgently needed “to enable NATO to deal with the threats of today and tomorrow as effectively as it dealt with those of yesterday,” Robertson said. Along with developing defense capabilities, this also includes streamlining decision-making and overhauling NATO’s Brussels headquarters’ organization.

He said NATO must now change to deal with the threats of a new century — “Threats that cannot be measured in fleets of tanks, warships or combat aircraft. Threats no longer mounted only by governments. And threats that can come with little or no warning.

“To deal with this new and dangerous world,” Robertson concluded, “we have agreed that NATO must modernize and that NATO will modernize.”

Comment: For NATO substitute Europe! The mention of airlift must have grated on those countries trying to push the A400M project ahead in the face of German opposition. The U.K. has already leased the C-17s and sources close to BATTLESPACE suggest that the usage has increased dramatically and the lease costs have soared beyond the original budget. The government has not revealed the increased costs. (See PARLIAMENTARY QUESTIONS FROM P

Primary Sidebar

Advertisers

  • qioptiq.com
  • Exensor
  • TCI
  • Visit the Oxley website
  • Visit the Viasat website
  • Blighter
  • SPECTRA
  • InVeris
  • Britbots logo
  • Faun Trackway
  • Systematic
  • CISION logo
  • ProTEK logo
  • businesswire logo
  • ProTEK logo
  • ssafa logo
  • DSEi
  • Atkins
  • IEE
  • EXFOR logo
  • KME logo
Hilux DVD2022 GlobalMilSat

Contact Us

BATTLESPACE Publications
Old Charlock
Abthorpe Road
Silverstone
Towcester NN12 8TW

+44 (0)77689 54766

BATTLESPACE Technologies

An international defence electronics news service providing our readers with up to date developments in the defence electronics industry.

Recent News

  • EXHIBITIONS AND CONFERENCES

    July 1, 2022
    Read more
  • VETERANS UPDATE

    July 1, 2022
    Read more
  • MANAGEMENT ON THE MOVE

    July 1, 2022
    Read more

Copyright BATTLESPACE Publications © 2002–2022.

This website uses cookies to improve your experience. If you continue to use the website, we'll assume you're ok with this.   Read More  Accept
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Non-necessary
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
SAVE & ACCEPT