By Ann Roosevelt
The top priority capability for U.S. European Command (EUCOM) and NATO is intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR), while economic pressures squeeze budgets, according to the dual-hatted commander.
EUCOM commander Gen. John Craddock said ISR is a priority. “We need that unblinking eye,” he said.
However, the Pentagon’s request for the war supplemental funding bill is not complete and could cost $69.7 billion or more. It is not expected until after the Jan. 20th change of administration (Defense Daily, Jan. 6). The defense budget, due in February, is expected to be missing some fine detail that will be filled in later.
Craddock told the Defense Writers Group Jan. 9 that while most of the ISR capabilities are found in service programs, “it’s a matter of quantity and depth, because all the [combatant commanders] COCOMS need the same things.”
NATO has the same concern.
“What’s my first need in Afghanistan? ISR. The unblinking eye and we don’t have it. We have intermittent capabilities,” said Craddock, NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander- Europe.
NATO has been working off and on for 15 years on an Air Ground Sensor program, now an unmanned aerial vehicle program.
“We’re right now on the horn of a dilemma because one of the nations committed to that program now is wavering on their commitment to stay in,” Craddock said. “If they pull out because of this financial burden–and the reason is they have to cut the budget if they pull out–we may well lose that program we’ve tried for 15 years to get.”
The desire is that the nations will hold to their pledged contributions.
“This is one we need critically. Right now we are short the full motion video that this would provide in everyday operations in Afghanistan. It would provide the persistent surveillance that we need and don’t have that we depend on nations to provide,” Craddock said.
“Our day to day operations in Afghanistan are hit or miss on whether or not we’ll get UAVs from the United States, on an as available basis,” he said. “Italy has provided some UAVs, so we use them when they can be provided to the alliance from national responsibilities and then there are some short range. But this is an incredibly important capability that we’ve been after.”
Craddock said other NATO priorities that need to be met include strategic airlift–the first C-17 is expected to be delivered this spring–and command and control.
There are economic pressures on the NATO members, as they are asked to spend 2 percent of their GDP on security.
“Of the 26 [NATO] nations today, I think we’re at six that hit the 2 percent benchmark,” Craddock said. “Of the six, [in] half of those the trend is down and of the 20 that don’t meet it, 90 percent of the trends are down, so I think absent the financial crisis we still are challenged. With the financial crisis, it’s even more of a challenge.”
It’s difficult to get the nations to pull together to match what NATO needs, he said. “It’s a downstream impact of the impact of declining budget shares…it’s going to be harder and harder for nations to continue to support this performance capability we’re asking.”
And being a NATO member is not going to get cheaper. To modernize and transform a nation’s military to a professional force costs more than the Cold War conscript-based force. To operate with NATO forces nations must have modern equipment is costly, and it is costly to contribute to all the other things NATO wants.
For the alliance, defense ministers hold the checkbook. “Supplemental is an unknown term by and large,” Craddock said.
Craddock says he sees some hard times ahead that will impact the ability of nations to stay in operations–probably the most expensive activity that might slow transformation, he said. The European Union’s security defense policy and NATO should come together to look for efficiencies, and ways to reduce the financial burden on member nations. What’s needed, Craddock said, are innovative ways to meet the challenges.