Esteemed Colleagues,

It gives me great pleasure to return to Essen this year as Moderator for the 2024 JAPCC Conference. As I am sure you know, NATO celebrated its 75th anniversary in April. Much has happened since the 4th of April 1949 – not least NATO membership growing from the 12 founding members to the 32 member nations of today. The threats that NATO faces have also changed but, perhaps, not as much as we may have hoped or imagined – “plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose” – everything changes, yet everything remains the same.

What certainly does remain the same, of course, is NATO’s commitment to maintaining freedom, peace and security for its 32 members. To quote an American saying this time, “freedom isn’t free.” It requires mission ready forces from the member nations to deter Russia and other potential aggressors from attacking NATO territory. The nations must provide NATO with robust military capabilities that are available immediately. Our German hosts would call this “kriegstüchtig” – fit for war.

In order to achieve this, forces must think ahead and adapt quickly to the evolving security environment. The 2024 JAPCC Conference will discuss the challenges and opportunities for air and space power in the evolving security environment that we see all around us. In my own nation, I see daily debates in the media from UK politicians about whether we are – in any sense of the word – kriegstüchtig. One recent opinion piece argues that – historically – we are at the equivalent of 1937 (for the UK, WW2 began in 1939). I firmly believe, however, that robust and credible NATO force structures and capabilities will serve to deter potential aggressors. If we do have the luxury of some time to improve and bolster these, then we would do well not to squander it.

One other thing that constantly evolves is this conference. I still (vaguely) remember helping to organise this conference many years ago in the cinema in Kleve in my days as a JAPCC SME. So we have come a long way – and not just in terms of the 91 km from Kleve. Last year saw the introduction of the Conference App and I intend to leverage this technology more this year to provide well thought out questions – from you – to panel members. We have also ‘slimmed down’ the Read Ahead material that you will see in the pages that follow. Now that it is in a more user friendly form, I am sure more of us will use it to set the scene for the conference panels and also to energise the discussions that follow each panel. I look forward to speaking with you in Essen!

Yours aye,
Bruce Hargrave