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UEDEM/KALKAR, Germany - The Commander of the NATO Combined Air Operations Centre and the German Air Operations Command hosted Flag Officers from national German and NATO commands on November 12 to discuss new developments in the field of Air Command and Control.

“It’s good that we have representatives from all services around the table,” said Lieutenant General Klaus Habersetzer, Commander of the German Air Operations Command at Kalkar and of NATO’s Combined Air Operations Command at nearby Uedem, welcoming a dozen of flag officers from the German Air Force, Army, Navy and Medical Services, NATO Allies Hungary and Poland and the Joint Air Power Competence Centre.

If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together.

“We live in a time where we are confronted with multiple threats and it is all the more important to act together in countering these threats,” he added. “Therefore we need to be flexible in our command and control of delivering airpower; however, we have to keep in mind that small changes in the planning process might have big consequences for execution of an operation.“

General Klaus Habersetzer, Commander of NATO's Combined Air Operations Centre at Uedem hosted the Air Command and Control Seminar aimed at further improving command relationships. Photo by DEU AirOpsCmd

The seminar’s agenda also included a session with General Jeffrey Harrigian, Commander of NATO’s Allied Air Command at Ramstein, Germany, who was linked in via video conference.

 He underlined the importance of leadership working together at all levels in order to achieve maximum mission accomplishment. “In the face of that,” General Harrigian said, “if you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together.” 

The Commander of Allied Air Command, General Jeffrey Harrigian contributed to the seminar via video conference and underlined the necessity of leadership to be coordinated and connected. Photo by DEU AirOpsCmd

A representative from the German Joint Force Air Component Headquarters briefed on their way towards leading Allied air forces under the 2023 Very-High Readiness Joint Task force and showed participants around the headquarters and the Combined Air Operations Centre. Representatives from German Army, German Navy and the recently established NATO Joint Support and Enabling Command provided their perspectives on command and control in multi-domain operations.

During two sessions the participants took part in a so-called table-top exercise. The goal was to work with several scenarios and simulated decisions relating to air command and control in the Baltic Region, which is one domain of interest to the Combined Air Operations Centre at Uedem; since 2004 the centre has been responsible for controlling NATO’s Baltic Air Policing mission.