Military Mobility – Adequate Deterrence With Insufficient Infrastructure?

Discussion Recording Now Available Here

SESSION SUMMARY

General Dynamics European Land Systems are proud to host and support Defence iQ’s Virtual Discussion Group a part of the ‘Military Mobility Series’ focusing on adequate deterrence with insufficient infrastructure. 

The imperative of ensuring the mobility of military assets across and beyond Europe is retaking its place on today’s security priority list. This capability was neglected following the end of the Cold War in favour of other security priorities. Russia’s invasion of Crimea refocused thinking in this area and NATO must now learn, or re-learn, how to move troops and assets across longer distances and new terrains.

Seemingly minor issues such as different terrain gauges across borders, infrastructure gaps, and varying clearance procedures are key impediments to effective military mobility and by extension to a robust European defense.

However, this also provides an opportunity for the European Union to become a valuable security partner of NATO by putting in place the underlying infrastructure required to facilitate Europe’s collective territorial defense.

The EU and NATO are strategically aligned with military mobility; a precondition for the EU to fulfil its ambitions towards greater autonomy and with NATO seeing the military value of the EU who can wield their regulatory power and expertise to create the common infrastructure required to achieve their mobility objectives.

The concept of our discussion is further defined and summarised by the recent CEPA paper on ‘Deterrence Through Military Mobility’. We are delighted to welcome both contributors of this paper as a part of our esteemed group of panellists and we hope you, your colleagues, and peers can join and contribute to this critical discussion.

The discussion will concentrate on:

• Military Perspective: How can we ensure deterrence and readiness given inadequate infrastructure? What are the consequences of the growing European divergence in threat perception and consequently in prioritization of military requirements? Status quo of civil/military infrastructure?
• Political Perspective: Military Mobility as ‘transatlantic glue’ to recalibrate the NATO defence partnership. Sufficient budgeting? Military Schengen? Military Mobility as a precondition for strategic autonomy?
• Industrial Perspective: EU Commission or Member States (EDF or PESCO)? Multilateralism (EU) or Bilateralism (Franco-German)? How do the infrastructural constraints shape the military requirements regarding transportability (weight/dimension)?

With expert contributions from our panelists:

• Lt. Gen. (Ret.) Ben Hodges, Perishing Chair, CEPA & Former Commanding General, US Army Europe
• Dr. Thomas Kaufmann, VP, International Business & Services, General Dynamics European Land Systems
• Tania Lațici, Policy Analyst, European Parliament
• Jan Havranek, Policy Adviser, Policy Planning Unit, Office of the Secretary General, NATO HQ
• Dr. Jacek Bartosiak,  CEO & Founder, Strategy & Future