NATO–EU Strategic Priority: Strategic Logistics, Sustainment & Military Mobility
The ability to sustain, move, and resupply military forces during crises has returned to the forefront of Euro-Atlantic strategic planning. The large-scale war in Ukraine has underscored the necessity of having robust, resilient, and integrated logistics systems capable of ensuring effective power projection, operational continuity, and timely reinforcement in high-intensity scenarios. At the same time, the growing vulnerability of Europe’s critical infrastructure, the saturation of both civilian and military industrial capacities, and deep dependencies on non-allied suppliers have revealed the structural nature of logistical challenges. In response, NATO, the European Union, and allied governments have elevated strategic logistics, operational sustainment, and military mobility to top-tier priorities, embedding them into regional plans, investment frameworks, regulatory schemes, and industrial pathways. The ability to ensure rapid mobility across multimodal corridors, forward stockpiling, and repair capacity—together with full civil-military interoperability—is now recognised as essential to credible deterrence, allied resilience, and strategic autonomy. This renewed approach merges infrastructural, operational, and technological dimensions, requiring coordination across military planning, industrial innovation, and administrative governance.
This analytical report reconstructs the evolution of the strategic priority along the full decision-making continuum, from the political-strategic level through to administrative implementation, following a six-part structure. The first section examines the political and strategic context that has led NATO, the European Union, and allied national authorities to define strategic logistics and military mobility as core pillars of the Euro-Atlantic defence posture, identifying key risks, perceived threats, and priority geographical areas. The second section translates these drivers into operational concepts, outlining the main domains involved, reference scenarios, and organisational models that guide planning and execution. The third section derives the capability requirements and functional performance parameters needed to achieve the operational goals, identifying relevant platforms, systems, and technologies. The fourth section analyses the regulatory, industrial, and financial instruments activated to implement this priority, both at EU and national levels. The fifth section identifies structural bottlenecks and strategic dependencies that limit effectiveness. The sixth and final section evaluates the implications for industrial actors, research organisations, and capital providers, outlining future development and risk trajectories for Europe’s defence ecosystem.