In september. During his tenure, he advocated the cloudconcept. They successfully tested the concept over molly, and they are making it clear they are interested in experimenting with the idea. We asked to explain the top priorities. Fold. Priorities are two we have to get more responsiveness to our nato forces, and you working with our implement, butto it is not it is a major implementatione of nato. A second priority is to make everyone understand we need to some of the challenges we face today regarding the systems and hybrid scenarios. We had it identified before, but we did nothing because we were focusing on the present. We have to take into consideration what would be the future in order to make the best assessment on what we do today, and that is my priority today. Vago your command is in charge of driving lessons from major operations, and the last few years, and just right now, the variety of operations ongoing are staggering. If you look at the capabilities that russia demonstrated in syria, for example, more you look at the fight against isis, and some of the operations they are taking in libya, elsewhere, and even the migrant crisis, what are the lessons you are drying that should shape the operational capabilities of the alliance in the future . Gen. Mercier the main lesson is surprised by new ways of warfare, state actors, scenarios. We have to recognize that, and we have to work on what is the difference in the deterrence posture for the 21st century as far as our alliance . Nato is the only International Organization with a Strong Military capacity that covers the range and spectrum of what you need to conduct a military operation. But this is for today, and the sureion is how we are to it will be developed in the future. Conflict the everything is interrelated. We cannot think we will deal with north and east without dealing with the south. There is an issue recognize that are threats are 360 posture wed how the are building could help us to face any kind of challenge, weather, again, it is coming from state or nonstate actors. Vago you mentioned the warsaw summit. Of the defense ministers meeting, there was a wargame you guys conducted. What are some of the lessons from that organ that you think is going to shave the nato wargame that you think are going to shape the nato summit . Mercier the main lessons are gen. Mercier the main lessons are when you deal at the political level, you need to base your scenarios on real scenarios so that you can inform the reality of the decision. That is very important. Otherwise, some can cap forget about the reality. When youre talking about high responsiveness, and have a strong that goes from the top down to this article level. We draw some lessons from that. One of them is the need to have a permanent strategy that covers all of these levels, and we have a lot of initiatives in nato implemented in this area, but we could do much better, especially a the way we could connect boundary that would lead us to future hybrid scenarios. So, it was very interesting this event, to link military reality and political issues. Vago during the cold war, obviously, the Political Leadership was always engaged on matters, even up and through nuclear planning, nuclear exercising, for example. Enoughsee is there progress being made in the Political Leadership of the alliance today to be as ready for the Rapid Response decisionmaking you will have to make . Gen. Mercier and one of the best illustrations of that is the decisions that have been made in the warsaw summit that we are in ponting that will give more authority to the military implementing that will get more authority to the military authorities. Sometimes the devil is in the details. Exercisering our major , that we can have forces at the iny High Readiness level less than 48 hours, and that we have problems as soon as we have weapons, and we need to solve these problems through different nations. You can have nations at high residents readiness, and sometimes have trouble deploying them. We are sorting all of these issues, and this is very important that we continue to work in this way. General, all the top leaders in the alliance has said systems the weapons that, for example, the russians are developing to create zones of immunity from their perspective that make it very, very hard for nato forces to attack, so the russians can project power from those safe havens, if you will. The United States is working very, very hard, obviously, on solving or addressing that challenge, both for the russians, but as well for the chinese. What are some of the things the alliance can do, and Alliance Members specifically can do, to advance natos overall capability to fight this challenge . Gen. Mercier i will not mention a specific nation, but the overall aerial denial capabilities this is not new. They have developed strong systems. First, the range of the system would be far beyond the borders, and then those systems could threaten the alliance territory, and could threaten the International Alliance of communication. So, this is new, but it is a political issue, especially in his time, and a political issue calls for a political answer. On the military side, it is different. Are is new is the systems multilayered and absolutely integrated, which means that even as you get rid of one sensor, you still have a lot of different sensors of different size, using different technologies, which are still available. Of if you have these kind systems, today, what we can do we can deal with that, this is what we did in the past. This is why it is absolutely important that we can deal with that today, and provide answers that would engage a lot of here, whether they are ciber, whatever. We need to look at how we can do better in the future, 10, 15 years, and how can we do better in the future it is by the integration of all of our own systems. Have realtime integration between sensors and effectives, then you can have different answers. This is why it is absolutely important that we look at the future, and this is probably a shortfall that we have in our planning process today. We provide answers to problems with what we have today, and we aed to continue to integrate longterm plan 10, 15 years, and see how we can chang of system. It is our will to do that. Top coming up, more withs office nato top officer, somehow it felt like everything was moving in slow motion. If i didnt react, things could have gotten messy in a hurry. I mean just got that sweet ride with a great rate from navy federal. I was not about to let anything happen to her. Just looking out for my wingman. Hes still in training. Open to the armed forces, the dod and their families. Navy federal credit union. Vago we are back with general denis mercier, natos supreme allied commander at his headquarters in buffalo, virginia. Nor folk, virginia. One of the things you and i have talked about and you have been passionate about is this idea of the combat cloudy to create a Battle Network where it is not better if it is an aircraft, vehicle, or a ship, you can easily get on this and can indicate with everyone else, to serve as an information platform, but also a powerful command and control tool. Tell us a little bit why about why you are so passionate about the idea doing to get the alliance overall to embrace it . I think this is really a game changer for the future. We talked about entire access aerial denial systems, and how we can deal with those systems, and neutralize those systems. The best way to do that is not to have more and more assets. This is what we could do today. The best way to do that is to integrate, and sometimes in real time. Any different sensors that could understand detect those systems, and how they are integrated, and use of factors, whether they are provided from an aircraft, missiles, special forces. If we want to achieve this kind of integrated system, you need to have a cloud that will link all of your systems together. Architecture of this, and where man in the loop . You have to think of where you will deal with this big data, the massive amount of information, and you need Artificial Intelligence . Probably, yes. Do you need to put that in your request, in your reachback . What would be the consequent is for your architecture, and things like this . This would be a way to have more networks and a decentralization of operational control of the forces, which is absolutely more plausible, but to achieve that, you need new architectures. This is what we are going to do. With these new architectures, you will not be able to just revise the requirements, as we could do for our capabilities in the past. You need the help of professional traditional Defense Industry people working for banks, things like this, and you need to put the problem on the table and say this is my problem, and these are my options. People could come even startups, could come with bright ideas. This is what Technology Allows you to do to manage all of this keyrmation, and this the of it is to have the more flexible decisionmaking process. The key of it is to be able to not connect our platforms together, but to connect them through a Central Network to make each platform, even the little one, very relevant, and make them work in real time if it is necessary. This is nothing more than dealing with the internet of things, connecting objects how we do that, but the object have this control network. Vago right. Gen. Mercier this is what we have to develop for defense. Vago what do you think is the gen. Mercier vago what are the specific exercises you are doing in a nato context . Gen. Mercier right now, we are writing the vision. Theave the replacement of Airborne Warning exactly. We are writing the requirement paper, and we did not want to have a requirement paper that ,ould lead to an aircraft, uav a satellite, or some directives. What we decided to do or Something Like this. What we decided to do is this is surveillance and control. What would it mean in 10 years . The requirements, and then what are the different architectures that would solve that . Probably, at the end of the day, it would not lead to one platform, but probably many linked together. We will see. This is a new way of thinking. We try to apply responsible to all of our capabilities, first think. The second thing, we need to have industry, innovative industry, it and we need to leverage, probably, people we do not know already, and how we can put this problem on the table and try to find different solutions. We have connections doing that. We have an exercise that is not really an exercise. It is more some kind of documentation process, which is two a year, one, here in virginia. The next will be in poland. We bring guidance, and we put problems on the table, and come up with innovative ideas. Need tohave that, we test architectures in exercises in the future, and we will use the Nato Industry Forum to intimate those ideas, and discuss more with industry. My idea is we define the vision, and that we will use all the have two, that we this vision. Vago right. Let me ask you about predictive tools. In december,i met we discussed which i thought was fascinating you noted that you have not been in an Operational Center that has had predicted tools, and the financial community, for example, benefits from predictive tools that even queue up decisions when there are major market movements, or smaller movements. Why is it important to team with a financial community, for example to realize them . Gen. Mercier we need these kinds of tools for improving the strategic awareness that we have, and especially, again, for the scenarios. We need not only military intelligence, but a lot of differences coming from diplomatic technology, environment, and many vago social trends. Gen. Mercier exactly. Exactly. Areas. How we can come at them, and how we can use simulation and Artificial Intelligence that helps make the decision. That does not mean we will use the tool system to make the decision for us, but to help us. And we have more and more. It is absolutely essential, i think. Nato next, more with supreme allied commander. You are watching defense news with theare back supreme allied commander of transformation, general denis mercier. I want to ask about cyber. The pentagon is focused on this issue all nato nations are. Talk to us about how you see cyber threat evolving and what are the capabilities the alliance has to deliver . Gen. Mercier ciber will be everywhere, especially as we develop decisionmaking process, more dependent on the communication systems. Cyber will be an issue. Cyber is likely to be recognized soon. There will be, maybe, a cyber pledge by nation to increase operation in the warsaw summit. What does that mean . Because it is an organized thread, i see many initiatives in different nations great initiatives. Now we will have to be sure that we can put all of these initiatives in one project, and fit all of these initiatives in the future this is something we are thinking about. Again, this is not cyber for cyber. This is cyber links to our future combat control systems, the future use of different communication systems, and how we use cyber for that. So, he did it, and for the shortterm will be to federate all of the National International initiatives, i think. Vago pentagon is working on a third offset strategy to stay ahead of competitors and push innovation. From your standpoint, what should the third offset strategy be, and what is the key to having an integrated command . The strip cyber the strategy, as far as i understand from the presentation the strategy, as far as i can understand for the presentation, is how we can use Artificial Intelligence exactly what i talked about when i talked about clouds. It is important for me to continue t see how we can have some kind of synchronization. That is a specific call for a. C. T. The European Union tried to promote the idea of a research and Development Fund to bringing new research, new ideas, and we do the same in nato. There is a similar strategy in the u. S. Obviously, if we have to be engaged, we will be altogether. Really a role for my command to try to see how we can have the vision and what will result of nato, the opinion how we consume is that with u. S. Strategies, so we can keep something that essential for the future. Vago wargaming is another one of the priorities for the where do you see fit into the workings . What you do with the pentagon, what you do independently, and how do you combine with you what you and the d. O. B. Are doing . Dod are doing . Not much now. We will have a meeting with our u. S. Counterparts, and there is a big center working on the arere concept and exercises being conducted a very similar to posting close to norfolk, in fact. We will have a meeting where we share the vision, and once we do that, the question will be how do we do work, and share expert mentation. I would have to do that with the other partners in the atlantic as well. We are in the beginning of the process, but it is important that we make big progress. Vago four much more of our interview, go defensenews. Com, and this week, personal finance expert jeanette mac tax tells us want to invest in a account. Had options when you join the military, and it is no difference when it comes to personal finances. Many people think setting aside extra money in a savings account might be the best investment. While the accounts are simple and convenient, consider diversifying your options with a money market savings account. It typically offers a higher Interest Rate compared to the standard checking or savings account, and unlike a certificate of deposit, you can access your might anytime. It makes the money market forunt and attractive offer a rainy day fund. Most have limits as to how many and what type of withdraws you can make. Basic savings requires a smaller deposit. Honey market money have a larger amount. It is a smart way to keep funds liquid while earning great returns. Vago jeanette, thank you. We will see you next week. We were making a move. The dewe had to. Made we knew that if we came in too high, it would cost us big time. We had to stay low. And boy did we. We locked it in and rode that low rate from Navy Federal Credit union all the way to our first house. Its a splitlevel ranch. So cute open to the armed forces and their families for over 80 years. Navy federal credit union. Vago last weeks deadly incident highlights the challenges of dependent too heavily on technology. Apparently the soldiers were in uniform and using a Navigation App to take a shortcut. When they drove into the cap, they were pelted with stones and explosives. An Israeli Rescue party arrived in clashes lasted for hours, leaving one palestinian student that command 15 wounded, including five israeli policeman. The israeli prime ministers said the incident was being investigated, but noted the soldiers depended too much on technology, ended not know the terrain and he wisely added that despite gps, you cannot locating yourself with a map. He is right. Technology is vital, but so, too, are core skills critical to a published missions when technology does not work or is optimized. It is worth numbering that americas enemies are interested in undermining our than just. The good news is the u. S. Military is planning for future in which adversaries jam or spoof gps. The american response must blunt technology was good, military education and power leadership, to make sure u. S. Forces can always get the job done. Thank you for watching. I am vago muradian. Visit us at defensenews. Com. You have comments for the show or suggestions for future coverage, please email me. A special thank you to everyone at a ct headquarters for the help. Well be back next week at the same time. Until then, have a great week. [music] dr. Charles stanley and god uses adversity to do what . To point out sin in our life. If theres a sense of unforgiveness, bitterness, hostility, anger, prejudice or whatever it might be, then he wants to get rid of all that. And so he allows adversity in our heart to teach us how to live a godly life. Male announcer next on in touch, in the midst of adversity. Announcer join us during the program and f