North Atlantic Treaty Organization
Allied Command Transformation
December 6, 2013
Chiefs of Transformation Conference 2013
The last major event sponsored by Allied Command Transformation this year will be the Chiefs of Transformation Conference (COTC) to be held in Norfolk, Virginia from 10-12 December.
This is the only venue where national Chiefs of Transformation from the entire NATO Alliance and the partner nations that it works with have the opportunity to interact and collaborate not only with each other, but also with the entire senior leadership of the ACT headquarters.
Despite decreasing defence budgets across the Alliance, interest in the COTC continues to grow with over 270 participants registered this year from 50 different nations. This clearly demonstrates the appetite amongst the nations to develop pragmatic solutions to deal with emerging critical issues of concern to all. Discussions will be wide ranging and will cover a number of topics; from the implementation of critical NATO programmes such as Smart Defence and the Connected Forces Initiative, to the examination of the impact of critical capabilities such as Ballistic Missile Defence or Robotics in the Future.
One initiative launched last year was the Nations Engagement Team (NET) concept that is aimed at supporting key capability development and transformation initiatives of importance to the nations. The team recently returned from Poland where they were hosted by the Director of the Doctrine Training Centre (DTC) for the Polish Armed Forces (PAF), Major General (Retired) Wlodzimierz SASIADEK, in Bydgoszcz. Well over 150 PAF officers attended the event from the DTC, Multi-national Corps North East, the Military Police Centre of Excellence, the Joint Force Training Centre, the Ministry of Defence, the General Staff, and all branches of service.
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