Empowering NATO's Technological Edge In the Naval Domain

Instabilities in regions close to NATO territory are likely to remain significant for many years to come. All indications are that the Alliance will experience increasing pressure as it executes its role in helping to maintain the world's strategic balance. Global trends such as demographic and economic shifts, increasingly rapid technological advances and proliferation, pressure on scarce resources and the changing nature of conflict portend a complex geopolitical and operational environment for future NATO actions. Discovering, developing and utilizing advanced knowledge and cutting-edge science and technology (S&T) is of fundamental importance to continue enabling our Alliance forces to succeed across the full spectrum of operations now and in the future. From the onset, S&T cooperation within NATO has been built on two complementary approaches: multinational collaborative S&T that nations and other stakeholders elect to carry out and fund in the NATO context, and in-house S&T that is carried out in a NATO-owned research establishment in predominantly the maritime domain.