NATO plans to share classified military information with industry, EU

By Andrea Palasciano

NATO has started a process to share some of its highly classified capability targets — which determine what kind of weapons and equipment member countries need to produce — with the defense industry, according to people familiar with the matter.

The move is part of an effort by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to push for increased production in what new Secretary General Mark Rutte calls a “shift to a wartime mindset.”

According to the people, who asked for anonymity to discuss private matters, the alliance is looking for a way of expressing some of the aggregate targets in a format that can be safely shared, to convince companies to increase production capacity. The step would require consensus among allies, and may happen in the next few months, according to one person.

The initiative comes as NATO members seek to rearm in the face of Russia’s war in Ukraine. The return of Donald Trump to the White House has added urgency to the effort. The US president had previously threatened to withhold military support from those NATO members who under-spent on defense.

In a separate procedure, the alliance has also started a process to share some classified standards with the European Union, to which all but nine of NATO’s 32 members also belong, the people said. Due to the sensitivity of the information, they’ll be released gradually as NATO works through them and as standards are updated.

Those standards are military criteria aimed at harmonizing members’ armed forces and achieving interoperability among the allies. They could include, for example, calibers of weapons or common military vocabulary.

Receiving this information could allow the EU to harmonize norms both on military and dual-use matters, such as radio frequencies.

A NATO official said the alliance has taken steps to share its standards including with the EU as part of its new defense plans. It’s also working more closely with the industry, the official said.

NATO has recently shared unclassified material standards with the EU, a move European Union Defense Commissioner Andrius Kubilius called an “unprecedented” display of trust.

The step was taken at Rutte’s initiative, according to people familiar with the matter. A former Dutch prime minister, he’s focused on strengthening ties between NATO and the EU after taking office in October.

Rutte has also forcefully called on the defense industry, mainly in Europe, to ramp up production.

“There’s money on the table, and it will only increase,” he said in a December speech, urging companies to “put in the extra shifts and new production lines!”

Under Rutte’s leadership, NATO is also expected to present new, increased capability targets which would come with a higher spending goal on defense for allies, currently at 2 per cent of economic output. This could happen as soon as this summer, when allies gather in The Hague for their annual summit.