An Cosantóir

NATO - Ireland’s Participation | 21 explains Mr Leo Connolly (DoD). “We have a duty of care to our personnel: we need to make sure if they are being sent on an overseas mission that they can operate effi- ciently and effectively with the right tools and the right training. They operate with NATO on UN-mandated missions and 21 EU states are also members of NATO, so we have to make sure we are fully interoperable with all of these nations with regard to SOPs, planning, training and equipment: everything from the electrical socket in the wall to how a HQ operates.” As an example of how this approach leads to greater efficiency, at one time in Bosnia and Herzegovina the UN, NATO and the EU were all operating separate missions with a high degree of overlapping. However, through PfP personnel from all three organisations can work efficiently together to build peace and stability. “From the private soldier right to the top levels you can see the benefit of our membership of PfP,” said Col Ryan. “Many of the courses at home are now conducted to NATO/PfP standards. Our involvement with PfP al- lows us access to these standards, thus improving our capabilities for joint and multinational operations in many areas, including command and control; logistics; CIS; engineers; ordnance; medical; and the maritime domain. “For anyone who remembers the early days of UNIFIL, the Irish battalion was very much a stand-alone unit, whereas today, Irish units are fully interoperable up to battalion level, as was seen in our contribution to the recent EU/UN mission to Chad/CAR.” NATO/PfP have also benefited from Ireland’s partici- pation. When NATO took on a peacekeeping role it had no previous experience in this field, whereas Ireland brought with it decades of valuable peacekeeping ex- perience. Lt Col Egan said: “In the early days of KFOR we provided a transport company, which was an important theatre asset, and ISAF personnel in Afghanistan are trained in C-IED by Irish Ordnance Corps experts. We also offer places to partner nations on C-IED courses and on our senior and junior C&S courses, to name just a few.” NATO’s high regard for Irish military personnel can be seen in the important positions Defence Forces person- nel have held in the few NATO-led missions we have been involved in. For example, Col Ryan was a Deputy Multinational Task Force Commander in KFOR and before him Brig Gen Gerry Hegarty was Commander, Multinational Brigade Centre with the same mission. PfP offers a number of programmes and initiatives to its members from what it refers to as its ‘toolbox’. Out of the ‘tools’ on offer Ireland has signed up to two: the Planning and Review Process (PARP), and the Individual Partnership Programme (IPP). The first is designed to provide a basis for identifying and evaluating forces and capabilities that might be made available for multina- THE DEFENCE FORCES MAGAZINE tional training, exercises and operations in conjunction with NATO forces. The second is a comprehensive list of all PfP activities open to all partners, such as conferenc- es, exercises or the 1,500 courses on offer to PfP mem- bers. “The IPP is a system whereby we can offer courses to NATO/PfP members and we then have the advantage of access to courses on offer by other partners,” Mr Connolly said. “For example, we are a leading nation in the field of C-IED training and other countries are now benefiting from our knowledge in this field.” One of the advantages and benefits of our member- ship of PfP is that we fully understand and speak the ‘mil- itary language’ necessary to be effective in multinational operations. “This is very important,” said Col Ryan. “The Defence Forces is highly sought after for any UN-man- dated peace-support mission that comes up and in part this is due to our participation in PfP, which has helped us to develop our operational capabilities and work more effectively with other modern military forces.” An Irish KFOR Mowag Patrol

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