Review

The Congress on European defence issues meeting for the 6th time in Berlin at the city’s Congress Centre on 17th and 18th September 2007 was the largest of its kind in Europe and drew over 1000 participants from a total of 53 nations. Leading European politicians, soldiers, industrialists and scientists took part in this 6th Congress on European Defence entitled "European Forces in Operation – Lessons learned and Lessons to be learned” at which practical conclusions were drawn for the future shaping of operations and training and to remedy deficiencies. This successful 6th congress and its recommendations will serve as the basis for next year’s 7th Congress on European Defence at which top rank participants will consider a future European security and defence union and how to equip the European forces involved.

The 6th Congress on European Defence was opened by the Chairman of the European Parliament, Professor Dr. Hans-Gert Pöttering, whose keynote speech emphasised that the humanistic values enshrined in human rights applied to all and that these were rights worth fighting for. Europe should play its role and act in accordance with its values. He was convinced that a common European Defence could become a reality.

Prof. Dr. Hans-Gert Pöttering was the first speaker at the 6th Congress on European Defence

Outlines for security and defence policy

On the first day of the conference the main political and strategic aspects of a European security and defence policy were outlined in the light of such current issues as transatlantic armaments cooperation, operations in Afghanistan and the fight against terrorism.

Portugal’s Minister of Defence, Nuno Severian Teixeira, spoke about the future direction of Europe’s security and defence policy from a Portuguese perspective. In his view, the most urgent need was for new concepts to help define European defence guidelines and programmes. The Slovenian Defence minister, Karl Viktor Erjavec, referred to the importance of new military and security concepts in ensuring the swift implementation of an effective European Defence policy and strategy.

The Ministers of Defence of Portugal and Germany, Prof. Dr. Nuno S. Teixeira and Dr. Franz Josef Jung, with Dr. Karl von Wogau.

The German Minister of Defence, Dr. Franz Josef Jung, called for greater efforts towards creating a European army. That should become the long-term goal of the EU’s security and defence policy and implied the existence of a unified European command to direct the troops involved in operations.

Dr. Karl von Wogau, MEP, has been President of the Congress now for six years.

"It is important to drive forward Europe’s capabilities in this area in friendly partnership with NATO and the United Nations”, added Jung. It would also involve providing autonomous air and naval forces to supplement the EU operational components that have been ready since early this year.

Congress President, Euro MP Dr. Karl von Wogau, who chairs the European Parliament’s Subcommittee on Security and Defence, spoke of his own experience of Europe’s armed forces in the context of their many international operations. Von Wogau stressed that they had been indispensable to international peace missions for a long time now. These highly motivated and effective forces could already successfully cover a wide range of military tasks but there were still huge gaps. Moreover, the lack of sufficient NATO capabilities, e.g. for airborne area reconnaissance and surveillance, hampered EU planning. He strongly supported the German Defence minister’s call for land components to be supplemented by air and naval forces. Von Wogau set out a 10 point paper (see inset) listing the most important parameters for European security policy. One of these was the need for a European Ballistic Missile Defence concept. Everywhere in Europe should be equally safe with all citizens enjoying the protection of a BMD umbrella. In his paper Von Wogau called for the standardization of European equipment, at least where it was most urgently required today in the fields of telecommunications, reconnaissance and strategic and tactical transportation. It would be highly advisable to bring out a European white paper on Defence by 2008.

Transatlantic armaments cooperation

The Chairman and CEO of Thales, Denis Ranque, described the most important economic aspects of European defence policy as seen by French and European firms. He compared industrial cooperation on armaments in Europe with that in the USA, observing that there were difficulties in the transatlantic relationship. While politicians were in favour of transatlantic cooperation on armaments, such programmes took too long to come to fruition, and too many European programmes were being developed in parallel or in competition with each other. Europe had yet to create a single market for technology and armaments although this was a necessity if she were ever to promote and exploit her industrial capacity to the full.

Denis Ranque, Chairman and CEO of THALES, elaborated on the importance of the cooperation of defence industries.

Christian Leicher, Chairman and CEO of Munich’s Rohde & Schwarz group, presented the latest in communications technology and applications. Interoperable command systems should be top on the list of priorities for European forces in the next few years. Rohde & Schwarz could offer Euroforces a whole range of highperformance, military communications technologies for networkbased operational commands, including the Software Defined Radio (SDR) system, whose dedicated software and hardware made it secure from bugging.

Robert Bruce, the Pentagon’s Director for transatlantic Armaments Cooperation focused on the technical possibilities afforded by transatlantic cooperation on armaments, referring to the, at times, extremely successful US - European programmes. In the last 30 years over 200 such cooperative armaments projects had been conducted between the US and European partners. Today, cooperation ranged from aeronautical construction and guided weapons to UAV-Systems like the Euro Hawk, which were pioneering ventures for the kind of cooperation US policymakers wanted.

The Vice President of EADS and Key Account Manager at the EADS Office in Brussels, Andreas Hammer, turned to the matter of current European procurement programmes and highlighted the problems involved in completing major projects. While it was true that the appropriate structures were often lacking, even more often there was a lack of political will and a tendency to put national interests first. Hammer took a detailed look at the recent failure of the AGS (Airborne Ground Surveillance) programme for an airborne fleet of manned and unmanned platforms to ensure extensive ground surveillance and reconnaissance, which should have been a perfect example of transatlantic cooperation and the transfer of technology. Typically, once negotiated, the programme did not fail on account of the USA but due to the inability of some European states to come up with adequate funding.

Participants arose for the European Anthem.

Afghanistan – Operations

The Chairman of the German Defence Committee, MP Ulrike Merten, led the debate on "Defence committees – parliamentary responsibility for security and defence policy” with German MP Petra Hess and Estonian MP, Mati Raidma. Mrs Merten emphasised that Germany faced special challenges in the new security climate. The imminent extension of mandates for operations in Afghanistan and the future of military and civilian action in that country were issues of the greatest importance. In her opinion, there was no question of withdrawal from Afghanistan in the medium term. She declared her support for all three mandates and was in favour of extending the ISAF mandate, the Tornado surveillance mission, and continuing the mandate of Operation Enduring Freedom. Mrs Petra Hess focused her comments on the build-up of European armed forces. Given that this process would take a long time, she suggested that it be speeded up as of now and declared one of the primary goals of European security policy. Estonian MP Mati Raidma stressed that it was extremely useful for the armed forces of smaller countries to be involved and benefit from the past experience of the larger countries.

Countering terrorism

August Hanning, former head of the Federal Intelligence Service (BND) and now Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of the Interior, spoke on "Security and State – Power in Globalization”. In presenting the world-wide network of today’s terrorism, as part of the burden of proof he also showed pictures Al Qaida’s terrorist training camps in the westernmost border area between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The intertwining of Inner and Outer Security was discussed by Dr. August Hanning, State Secretary of the Interior.

Locating these enemy facilities depended above all on assistance from military resources such as satellites and continuous airborne reconnaissance. As much real-time information was needed as could be gathered. The hunt for terrorists called for unstinting cooperation between the military and intelligence services.

Military forum

The second day of the Congress on defence focused on military issues and was opened by the Chairman of the EU military Committee, General Henri Bentégeat. Central to the topics he raised were the deficiencies of Europe’s strategic and tactical air transportation, a key military capability in a crisis area. The EU Battlegroups were on the right track. Bentégeat felt that there were objective grounds for optimism about the future. The nations had recognized what was at stake for Europe and, although short of funds, could make progress with training and equipment through true cooperation and intelligent financial planning. The European Defence Agency was in a position to make an essential contribution to the standardisation of European equipment.

General Bentégeat was the speaker of the 2nd day, that focused on military topics.

Considerations of military strategy and tactics

The discussion between Defence ministers chaired by Dr.Christian Schmidt, Parliamentary State Secretary at Germany’s Ministry of Defence, produced a cross-section of political takes on the current and future operational potential of European forces. Poland’s General Chief of Staff, General Franciszek Gagor opened the discussion with a telling description of the experience gained by Polish forces in recent years, primarily through participating in European-led missions. Their experience of command, cooperation and training directly informed the arming and training of Polish forces today, helping the army to better organise itself for its tasks in NATO and the EU. International structures and common plans for training and equipment should be promoted. The Ministers of Defence of Bosnia Herzegovina, Selmo Cikotic, and Latvia, Atis Salkteris, together with Croatia’s deputy Minister of Defence, Mate Raboteg, took the discussion on to defence policy issues and strategic and tactical considerations. The EU endeavoured to do more than engage only its own forces; it also provided precious assistance with training for future EU states by welcoming their participation in missions.

Operational experience – Session with German experts

The session with German military experts chaired by German MP Frau Petra Hess, a member of the Defence Committee, attracted great interest through its examination of the lessons learned from forces in operations. The experience of Germany’s forces was discussed by the Chief of Staff of the German Air Force, Lieutenant General Klaus-Peter Stieglitz, together with Commander of the Fleet, Vice Admiral Hans-Joachim Stricker, the Commander of Operations Command, Lieutenant General Karlheinz Viereck and the Commander of the 13th mechanised infantry division, Major General Reinhard Kammerer. In addition to protection against enemy fire, it was of great importance to possess up-to-date communications technologies and reconnaissance systems. According to the Chief of the Air Force Staff, this militated in favour of increasing numbers of unmanned reconnaissance platforms. Support from the air would be crucial for the new European forces. The Navy could also point to the positive role played by modern equipment in the success of its missions under European command. The Commander of the fleet emphasised that the Navy implemented its experience from European operations very quickly in order to be able to optimise its response to future operations. In particular, German ships had proven their worth off the Lebanese coast. Lieutenant-General Viereck underscored that European-led missions would remain a central plank in European security policy. The European mission in the Congo had shown most clearly what problems still remained in all areas related to training and equipment, but also just how flexibly and reliably European forces were able to perform military tasks of that type. Major General Kammerer emphasised the importance of having compatible and interoperable equipment on such military missions. Unless provided with the protective and command technologies that were used in exemplary fashion by the German Army, operations today would be impossible or even unacceptably hazardous.

Technological insights

In his review of the technology of present and future military reconnaissance platforms Ed Walby, Col ret., a former U2 pilot now working for the Northrop Grumman group, showed how the unmanned reconnaissance platforms of the future would be able to replace manned systems. As one of the foremost developers of unmanned platforms, Northrop Grumman was an advocate of cooperation with Europe’s industry and armed forces. This meant that Northrop Grumman remained an important interlocutor for the future AGS Programme, which, in line with the wishes of the NATO member states, would be geared to high flying HALE UAVs.

MoP Petra Hess with the Chief of the German Air Force and the Commanding Generals/Admirals of the Services after a very informative national military forum with European aspects.

The speaker drew a very clear distinction between the capabilities of the latter and those of the medium altitude MALE-UAV platform. It will take years however before the many developments in this field are available to the troops. The HALE-UAV was currently being successfully put to the test in operations in IRAK. Based on Global Hawk, the EURO-Hawk System under development by Germany (EADS) and NGC was further proof of the validity of the open design of this platform which could be equipped with different combinations of various sensor.