Military historian William Lawson, writing in The National Interest June 29, reported a direct NATO appeal to private sector companies to develop technologies for long-range strikes against airfields deep within Russia. The military crowdsourcing campaign, which includes a contest, came in the form of a Request for Innovative Participation issued by NATO’s Supreme Allied Command Transformation (SACT).
The initiative is evidently one of the NATO actions that Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova slammed yesterday as part of a drive to “engineer a direct armed conflict between NATO and Russia.” Though framing it as a way to redress Ukraine’s deficiencies in air power, NATO clearly identifies the “Persistent Airfield Denial” program as its own. SACT is one of NATO‘S strategic commanders and is usually a French officer—currently Admiral Pierre Vandier.
The requirement, according to the SACT request, is to deliver “persistent denial of enemy airfield operations” via autonomous or operator-directed targeting of aircraft, runways, ground support infrastructure, and fuel and ordnance storage facilities. In line
with NATO’s determination to use Ukraine for escalation into full-scale war with Russia, they are asking for uncrewed aerial systems, autonomous or semi-autonomous munitions and loitering systems, swarming and mass-effect approaches, alternative delivery systems (“e.g. overland delivery”), and hybrid solutions combining multiple technologies. Lawson reports, “SACT is particularly interested in systems that can strike deep into contested enemy airspace while not requiring continuous human control.”
On a fast timetable, SACT is looking for proposals by July 20, will announce 10 finalists on August 11, and hold a “pitch day” for the finalists in September in Warsaw, Poland.
