NATO has come a long way in recognising the importance of expeditionary capabilities in dealing with the broad range of security threats the alliance is likely to face. It continues to make progress, but not as quickly as we—and others—would like. The alliance needs to do more to provide the capabilities it needs for current and future operations, such as strategic and intra-theatre lift and contributions to the NATO Response Force. The UK and other allies have sought to find innovative ways of developing such capabilities through initiatives to make more helicopters and strategic lift available for operations, but ultimately these capabilities depend on sufficient investment by allies in defence, and prioritisation on the capabilities the alliance needs most. NATO Defence Ministers met in London in September to inject more dynamism into this transformation process. NATO's agreement in Budapest the following month to increase targets for the deployability of allies' land forces is a welcome step in the right direction.
Mr. Hutton