USAREUR-AF leads forum on NATO Convergence at AUSA

WASHINGTON, District of Columbia - U.S. Army Europe and Africa Commanding General Darryl Williams hosted Maj. Gen. Jonny Lindfors, chief of Swedish Army​ and Ms. Dara Massicot, senior fellow, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Russia and Eurasia Program, at a contemporary military forum at the annual meeting of the Association of the United States Army in Washington yesterday, October 15. The topic of the CMF was "NATO Convergence in Contact: Transforming Land Power."

The discussion, moderated by Senior Research Fellow for Land Warfare at the Royal United Services Institute Dr. Jack Watling, came roughly three months after a raft of new NATO Defense Plans were announced in the very same location at the annual NATO Summit by Army Gen. Christopher Cavoli, supreme allied commander, Europe, and commander of U.S. European Command. The plans, years in the making, were necessitated by the illegal invasion of Ukraine by Russia and were the first such large-scale combat plans since the end of the Cold War, according to Cavoli.

The defense plans have led to a doubling of the number of battle groups in Europe, as well as an increase in the number of service members at higher levels of readiness, Alliance-wide.

"That's because we've been able to amalgamate and incorporate national defense plans into the NATO defense plans, so they complement each other," Cavoli told attendees of the Summit. "It has produced an ability to be forward postured."

Testing and operationalizing that increased capacity with prescriptive plans-known as "NATO Convergence"-has become one of the key responsibilities of Gen. Williams, who, along with his role as commanding general of USAREUR-AF, also serves as the commander of NATO's Land Forces Command. This command also serves as the Army Service Component Command for U.S. Africa Command.

"United States Army Europe and Africa is at the nexus of three combatant commands and two continents-and they're interlinked," Williams said. "We are now more relevant than we've ever been."

During September's Avenger Triad exercise, according to Williams, USAREUR-AF transitioned its staff to serve as NATO's multi-corps land component command, leading one U.S. and five multinational corps in a command post exercise, under the leadership of Allied Joint Force Command Brunssum.

"We just finished arguably the biggest exercise we've done since the 80's," said Williams during his remarks, discussing Avenger Triad. "We had corps passing each other. Think about that. No other theater is passing corps in a fight, no other theater. In Europe, we're doing that."

Maj. Gen. Lindfors, during his remarks, provided the Swedish perspective, which is also that of NATO's newest member. Lindfors said joining NATO at a time the organization was undergoing its own transformation is a challenge, but countries of the High North bring a lot to the mission of defending Europe.

"Sweden and Finland becoming NATO members actually changed the dynamics a little bit," Lindfors said. "We're bringing in the geography and the forces, so we're changing the equation."

Sweden, even before becoming a member of NATO, has been a member of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, which increases Sweden's-and Lindfors'-challenges.

"I have been tasked to double the army," Lindfors said. "We have a little dip in equipment, because we are also making huge donations to Ukraine-the best way ever to be able to spend the resources we have."

At the tactical level, NATO Convergence is creating the means by which Allied land forces can communicate and operate despite human, technical and procedural differences in order to achieve strategic goals. In the European theater this has meant an investment of time and energy over the past few years improving interoperability for warfighting ends.

Exercising with multinational forces in ways that have guided the Army's thinking on what large scale combat exercises would look like-and how they would work-has been a role USAREUR-AF can best play, as its troops are spread across the continent, living and working alongside their Allies.

There are also lessons being learned from the Ukrainians, as they continue to defend themselves against Russian aggression. As Cavoli told the Summit attendees in July, NATO Convergence will be improved and guided by the Ukrainian fight as a new, NATO-led Joint Training and Evaluation Center stands up in Poland. USAREUR-AF provides direct support to the effort as the theater enabling command for Security Assistance Group - Ukraine.

In some ways, though, said Massicot, one of the most important lessons learned from Ukraine's fight may be about the very necessity of NATO in the first place and its continuing value to world peace.

"Russia is beginning to put the pieces into place for long-term reconstitution," Massicot said. "(The Russian army) is an organization that is changing in real-time. It is now a mobilization army. It is not the same as it was in '22 and some of its worst impulses are being reinforced."

At the CMF, Williams and the other panelists made clear that NATO's newly-strengthened commitment in light of Russian aggression has been at the heart of this once-in-a-generation transformation of how Soldiers in Europe will fight alongside NATO Allies. At the heart of NATO Convergence, Williams added, are the ideals on which the Alliance stands, which stand in stark contrast to Russian aggression in Ukraine.

"This is bigger than just Russia and Ukraine," Williams said. "This is about our values. This is about our democratic way of life."

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