Leaders of NATO member states have expressed their commitment to an initiative that will improve defense industrial capacity and production among affiliated nations.
At the Washington Summit on Wednesday, senior government officials signed the NATO Industrial Capacity Expansion pledge, ensuring that the alliance possesses technologies to defend members from adversaries.
Outgoing NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, who spoke to industry representatives at a forum hosted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce on Tuesday, said the pledge ensures defense industries across the alliance will achieve production resiliency, become more innovative and enhance their ability to deliver large-scale orders.
“NATO has always been able to adapt and change when the world is changing; Now the world is changing. We face serious security challenges, and therefore we need to step up our cooperation, we need to invest more and we need to work closely with the defense industry,” he added.
Founded on the Defence Production Action Plan, the pledge includes creating national strategies to enhance industrial capacity, accelerating the process associated with multinational procurement and improving standards related to interoperability.
The alliance has been updating and fortifying its defense strategy. In addition to the defense production strategy and the industrial capacity plan, state leaders also agreed to establish the NATO Integrated Cyber Defence Centre, a program that will improve the alliance’s presence in the cyber domain, particularly in addressing threats and vulnerabilities.
In another development, NATO has opened a new ballistic missile defense facility in Redzikowo, Poland. The base, dubbed Aegis Ashore, features a technology capable of detecting missile attacks and a radar that guides an interceptor to address the offensive ballistic missile.