Question

Explainwhat Allied Command Transformation (ACT) is.

Answer 1

Allied Command Transformation (ACT) is a military command of the North Atlantic Transformation (ACT) is a military command of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), formed in 2003 after restructuring. ACT is one of the two strategic Commands at the head of NATO's military command structure. The other is Allied Command Operations (AOC), which is responsible for the planning and execution of all NATO military operations. ACT is headed by the Supreme Allied Commander Transformation (SACT), who excercises his responsibilities, from headquaters in Norfolk, Virginia, the United States. It is the only NATO command in North America.SACT is responsible to the Military Committee for the transformation and development of the Alliance to ensure it is capable of meeting the challenges of today and tomorrow. The Military Committee is the senior military authority in NATO and is under the overall political authority of the North Atlantic Council (NAC). This Strategic Command directs various subordinate joint Commands and has strong links with education and traning facilities, as well as with ministries of defense. ACT has also link with the NATO Force Structure (NSF) in general, which consists of forces placed at the Alliance's disposal by the member countries, along with their associated command and control structures.

ACTs Role and Structure

ACT together with ACO form what is called the NATO Command Structure(NCS), whose prime function is first and foremost to provide the command and control needed to address threats and, should deterrence fail, an armed attack against the territory of any of the European Allies. Ultimately, the NCS plays an essential role in preserving cohesion and solidarity within the Alliance, maintaining and strengthening the vital link between Europe and North America, and promoting the principle of equitable sharing among Allied of the roles, risks and responsibilities, as well as the benefits of collective defence.

ACT's role as warfare development command is two-fold:first, to enable ACO to efficiently conduct current operations; second, to prepare NATO's future operations. in this context, ACT ensures that NATOs warfare capabilities maintain future relevance, provides an indispensable understanding of the current and future security environment, and contributes to the development of NATO doctrine, concepts and interoperability standards.

Achievement of a NATO Command Structure that is fit for purpose and fulfils NATOs three core tasks- collective defense, crisis management, and cooperative security- can only be done with the strategic military expertise and interoperability provided by ACT with leverage of its network of nations, Joint Commands, and Centres of Exellence.

ACT is oraganised around four principal functions:

• Strategic Thinking;
• Development of capabilities;
• Education, training and excercise; and
• Cooperation and engagement.

These functions are reflected in the composition of ACT , which is comprised of the Norfolk Headquaters and three subordinate entities: one in Poland (Joint Analysis & Lessons Learned Centre). ACT also includes a SACT representatives at NATO Headquaters in Brussels, Belgium and at the Pentagon outside Washington D.C, an ACT Staff Element at the ACO Headquaters Allied Powers Europe or SHAPE - and a shared Military Partnership Directorate (MPD) with ACO, also located at SHAPE.Additionally, NATO's other education and training facilities and nationally-run entities, which are not part of the NCS, also coordinate with ACT. This includes the NATO Defense College in Rome, Italy, the NATO School in Obetammergau, Germany, the NATO Maritime Interdiction Operational Training Centre,Greecem and the nationally-run Centres of Excellence. NATO Agencies also interact with ACT on matters of common concern.

Responsibilities

Allied Command Transformation's current mission is to :

• provide the conceptual framework for the conduct of future combined joint operations;
• define how future operations will be conducted and what capabilities they will need;
• take new operational concepts, from others or self-generated, assess their viability and value, and bring them to maturity through doctrine development, sciendific research, experimentation and technological development.
• implement both by persuading nations, individually and collectively, to acquirw the capability, and to provide the education and tarining, enabling concepts to be implemented by NATO forces.

Strategic Plans and Policy

The main responsibilty of Strageic Plans and Policy is to formulate policies, strategies,engagements and analytical practices that enable SACT to provide strategic and policy advice, concepts, and stratefic engagement to NATOs political and military leadership.

Capability Development

This is a broad area which covers the entire capability development process, i.e from the moment a need is identified to the production phase when a new capability is actually developed for the Alliance. Moreover, Capability Development provides a major contribution to the NATO Defence Planning Process improving interoperability, deployabiity and sustainability of Allied forces.

• Join Force Development

Joint Force Development has responsibilties for NATO Force Development Activities. The aim is to improve interoperability among NCS, NFS as well as interoperability partner forces allocated to NATO, and enhance capabilities, to undertake the full spectrum of Alliance missions.

• SACT Representative in Europe

The SACT Representatives in Europe (SACTREPEUR) is located at NATO Headquaters in Brussels acting as SACTs representative to the Miitary Committee and attending all relevant activities. SACTREPEUR has the coordinating authority for all ACT engagements with NATO Headquaters and maintains strong links with the Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR) through his counterpart-the SACEUR Representative (SACEUREP)- also based at NATO Headquaters

• ACT Staff Element Europe

The ACT Staff Element Europe (SEE) is co-located with ACO in Mons. It deals primarily with defense and resource planning issues, as well as implementation.

ACT Liaison Office to the Penatgon To help enhance NATO transformation, this office promotes effective links and direct coordination between ACT and the US Joint Staff and other departments in the US military headquaters (Pentagon), located outside Washington D.C.

• Military Partnership Directorate

The Military Partnership Directorate (MPD) provides direction, control, coordination, support and assessment of military cooperation activities across the Alliance. It directs and oversees all non-NATO country involvement in military partnership programmes,events and activities, and coordinates and implements NATO plans and programmes in the area of partnership. The MPD is shared with a staff Element at the ACT headquaters in Norfolk, virginia.

• Joint Warfare Centre in Stavanger, Norway

The Joint Warfare Centre's (JWC) main task is to ensure they remain interoperable and fully integrated. Its principal mission is the training of the NATO Response Force (NRF) Headquaters elements and NRF Component Headquaters elements., it performs collective staff training for partner countries and new NATO members.

• Joint Force Traning Centre in Bydgoszcz,Poland
• Joint Analysis & Lessons Learned Centre in Monsanto, Portugal

ACT and Other entities

There are direct linkages betweeb ACT and entities which are not part of the NATO Command Structure, such as NATO educational and training facilties and Centres of Excellence.