NATO capabilities

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has continuously evolved and changed, both politically and militarily, during its 75-year existence. As a result, the methods and principles of the organisation chosen at the beginning of the Cold War are no longer relevant in the 21 st century. NATO's military capabilities are constantly improving and changing both the military structure of the Alliance and the military capabilities.

While adapting to the new challenges in the global security environment, the Alliance develops its military capabilities to be modern and expandable. One of such adjustments can be seen in the creation of the NATO Response Force that was set up in 2002 and which remains the main cornerstone of NATO collective security.

At the core of NATO's military capability development is its Strategic Concept as well as the political guidelines. These documents establish how the NATO member states must develop their military to maintain expandable and interoperable capabilities.The Strategic Concept identifies collective defence, crisis management and collective security as key tasks for NATO. Deterrence based on combining nuclear, conventional and ballistic missile defence capabilities remain as the general strategic core principle of NATO.

The Allies have agreed to develop and maintain all necessary range of capabilities in order to deter and facilitate defence against any potential adversaries. NATO Defence Planning Process is the main instrument to identify and set priorities that are needed for full scale operations. Every member state of NATO commit to of the Alliance's capability targets within NDPP. Latvia must take into account its commitments when planning the development of the NAF.

NATO's deterrence and defence is based on an effective combination of weapons systems and platforms, as well as forces trained to cooperate with each other. Investment in the right capabilities is therefore an essential component of investment protection. NATO plays an important role as an evaluator in raising awareness of the military capabilities that the alliance needs; it sets objectives for the development of Member States or collective capacities; and promote the development of Member States, multinational and collective capacities and the existence of innovation.