PRESS

KEY POINTS
CHAPTER 14
NORTH ATLANTIC TREATY
ORGANIZATION AIR POWER:
A SELF-RELIANT EUROPE? 1
Craig Franklin
• With a decreasing U.S. Air Force presence in
Europe and increasing pressure to address security
concerns in Asia and the Middle East,
non-U.S. North Atlantic Treaty Organization
(NATO) air forces must shoulder more of the
burden in Europe and its periphery.
• The strength of non-U.S. NATO air forces lies
in their personnel, tactical fighter strength, and
basing infrastructures.
• These air forces have plans to address key
shortfalls in intelligence, surveillance, and
reconnaissance; transport; air refueling; and
stealth aircraft, but successful implementation
will depend on Smart Defence initiatives and
stable budgets.
• More broadly, two issues continue to hamstring
NATO planning and execution: the fact that the
alliance lacks a common understanding of the
threats it faces, and the trend of NATO members
placing caveats on the types of missions
they will fly.
Although it is unlikely that NATO would ever
participate in a conflict without significant airpower
contributions from the United States, cuts to Ameri-
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