NATO Allies are working together to enhance interoperability across domains and counter what leaders called “increasing hybrid, reckless behaviors.”
The NATO Military Committee Conference of Allied defense chiefs and strategic commanders met in September 2025 in Riga, Latvia, to discuss security concerns and the Alliance’s deterrence and defense posture. The annual gathering took place as Europe faces increased threats to security, particularly from Russia.
In recent months, NATO has increased efforts to protect critical infrastructure in the Alliance’s eastern flank in response to Russia’s airspace incursions, and in the Baltic Sea, where power cables, gas pipelines and telecom links have been damaged by Russian ships.
“Our presence here in the Baltics is an unmistakable signal of NATO’s cohesion and solidarity towards our fellow Allies on the eastern flank,” Italian Navy Adm. Giuseppe Cavo Dragone, chair of the NATO Military Committee, said in a news conference after the meeting. “It is also vivid proof of our full resolve against those who want to challenge us or even divide us.”
The NATO Military Committee is the Alliance’s senior military authority and the link between the political decision-making process and the Alliance’s military structure, according to NATO’s website. The committee provides guidance to NATO’s North Atlantic Council, Nuclear Planning Group and the Alliance’s strategic commanders.
Defense chiefs reviewed the status of NATO’s defense planning and assessed areas where new technologies are needed to enhance capacity and interoperability and collaborate more closely with the defense industrial base, based on goals set during the August 2025 summit in The Hague, according to a NATO news release. The Alliance is also working with the European Union to ensure that defense systems acquired by member states are interoperable with NATO’s systems, and Allies are sharing requirements to rapidly field technology. The goal is “weeks, not months, to have something tested and experimented with, and months, not years, to have something that’s fieldable at the right price point that people can deploy,” a senior NATO official told Defense One.
NATO’s pursuit of greater collaboration and interoperability is evident not only in its strategic planning but also in its training and exercises across domains. Exercise Dynamic Messenger, conducted in September 2025 in Portugal, allowed Alliance members to advance the integration of multiple unmanned systems into a connected operational environment. The exercise was combined with the Robotic Experimentation and Prototyping with Maritime Unmanned Systems demonstration aimed at testing new maritime capabilities.
Also in September 2025, NATO’s Center of Excellence for Cold Weather Operations and U.S.-based Ted Stevens Center for Arctic Security Studies conducted a virtual course to address emerging threats in the Arctic. The course addressed issues raised by Russia’s war against Ukraine, increasing Chinese interest in the Arctic region, and Finland’s and Sweden’s accession to the Alliance during the past few years.
“Every threat to NATO’s air, land and sea space will be dealt with a resolute and proportionate response. We are ready,” Dragone said during a news conference after the Military Committee Conference. He noted Russia’s repeated violations of NATO air space with crewed aircraft and drones, which led to the Alliance establishing its Eastern Sentry mission in September 2025. “There must be no doubt about it. Our supreme Allied commander Europe has all the tools he needs,” Dragone said. “We do not seek confrontation, but we will not hesitate to undertake any actions deemed necessary for our collective defense.”