On 18 December 2018, Supreme Allied Commander Transformation (SACT), General André Lanata (French Air Force) paid the JALLC his first visit since his appointment earlier this year.

SACT’s flying visit was fortuitously timed as the JALLC wraps up a year of innovation and transformation in the field of Lessons Learned. During a briefing with the JALLC’s Command Group, SACT was brought up to speed on the JALLC’s activities, and in particular on its newly developed Engagement Concept. This concept encompasses all of the JALLC’s activities that focus on projecting the NATO Lessons Learned Capability into the Alliance and beyond, taking the JALLC’s subject matter expertise to Partner Nations and interested organizations. SACT was also briefed on the plans for the NATO Lessons Learned Portal, coming out of the highly successful New Technologies Event held in October this year. The plans will see further improvement and expansion of the Portal’s capabilities, increasing user-friendliness, efficiency and effectiveness based on real user needs. These improvements to the Lessons Learned Capability will full under the scope of Allied Command Transformation’s wider Emerging and Disruptive Technologies Roadmap which includes an enabling line of effort dedicated to Lessons Learned, highlighting the importance of this capability for the future of the Alliance.

The General was also briefed on the JALLC’s Analysis Concept which covers the two types of analysis conducted by the JALLC:

• Joint Analysis, which focuses on understanding the root causes of NATO-wide complex problems and making recommendations for ways and means to resolve such problems; and
• Active Portal Content Management (APCM), which focuses on understanding the wider implications of the data in the NLLP in terms of trend analysis and other relevant statistical analysis.

SACT then took the opportunity to address the JALLC’s staff noting that, at the end of these first three months of his tenure, he now is beginning to get a better understanding of Allied Command Transformation’s activities and the way ahead. In that context he highlighted his priorities for the strategic command one of which is innovation and how it is more important than ever to ensure that the Alliance remains relevant in this high-speed world we live in. He also underlined the importance of Lessons Learned to the Alliance and how it is underpins all the other activities as the first place to go before starting anything new.

The General left the JALLC with a better understanding of its activities, its achievements, and its plans as well as how the JALLC fits into the bigger ACT and NATO picture. He finally wished everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy new Year.