Mountain Warfare Centre of Excellence. We are multi-nationalin supportexperts
The NATO Mountain Warfare Centre of Excellence (MW COE) is a multi-national sponsored entity, which offers recognised expertise and experience to the benefit of the Alliance, especially in support of its transformation endeavours. The NATO MW COE is not a part of the NATO Command Structure (NCS), but forms part of the wider framework supporting NATO Command Arrangements (NCA).
On 25 March 2015, the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on the establishment of the NATO MW COE was signed in Washington D.C. Slovenia acts as the Framework Nation (FN) for the NATO MW COE, along with Croatia, Germany and Italy as Sponsoring Nations (SN). Austria participates as a Partner Nation.On 27 November 2015, under a silence procedure, the North Atlantic Council (NAC) approved the accreditation of the Mountain Warfare Centre as the twenty-second NATO Centre of Excellence and its activation as a NATO military body.
In accordance with the Operational MOU, the Steering Committee (SC) was established by the SNs under the permanent chairmanship of the FN. The NATO MW COE Director is responsible to and reports only to the SC. The SC provides tasking to the director as well as direction, guidance and advice for the effective execution of his mission, including the Centre’s management. There is no direct command and control relationship between the NATO MW COE and the NATO Command Structure. Nor is there any command and control relationship between the FN and the NATO MW COE. Respective relationships of the NATO MW COE are set out by MOU and appropriate arrangements. Taking into consideration that the overall responsibility for COEs coordination, employment, and concept and capability development within NATO lies with the HQ Supreme Allied Command Transformation (SACT), SNs establish a clear functional relationship with the HQ SACT. The HQ SACT will forward requests (RFS) from NATO for NATO MW COE services and products. The NATO MW COE will respond to them after they have been approved by SC, and included as activities in the centre’s annual Programmes of Work (POW).
The mission of the NATO MW COE is to assist NATO member countries, partners, other countries and international organizations,
in order to enhance mountain warfare capabilities through the following core areas:
- Development of MW-specific doctrine and tactics.
- Concept development and experimentation.
- Mountain warfare lessons learned process.
- Education and training.
- Support to capability development.
The vision of the NATO MW COE is to be the hub for mountain warfare expertise in the NATO communuty.
Mountain Warfare Centre Nations
8 Nations - 30 membres. Ready to discuss, ready for the action.
