From lessons to capability: delivering NATO’s next generation force

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Peace, Security & Defence

03Nov2026

starts 16:30

ends 18:30

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A growing tension exists between legacy equipment, which continues to attract significant investment, and the expanding role of emerging defence technologies. Ukraine has demonstrated that success depends not on replacing conventional capabilities, but on integrating drones, counter-drone systems and AI-enabled applications with legacy platforms, command structures and logistics. The central question is how NATO can strike the right balance between technological adaptation and sustained investment in force development, command and control, logistics and the industrial capacity needed to sustain prolonged operations.

Whether these lessons and capabilities deliver operational advantage or create further complexity will depend on how effectively they are integrated into coherent force structures. This discussion will examine how Allies should organise procurement and industrial scaling, incorporate battlefield lessons into force design and readiness, accelerate testing and experimentation, train personnel, strengthen interoperability and allocate investment at the required speed. It will also ask whether current armed forces are configured to make effective use of rising defence expenditure and the continuous flow of operational experience from Ukraine.

NATO’s future defence and deterrence posture will ultimately depend on its ability to organise institutions, procurement systems, force structures and industrial capacity that can continuously absorb innovation and deliver capability. The task ahead is to ensure emerging technologies and operational lessons reinforce, rather than fragment, readiness and combat power.

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Speakers

Dharmendra Kanani is Director of Policy & Programmes and Chief Spokesperson at Friends of Europe. Prior to joining Friends of Europe, Dharmendra was director of policy at the European Foundation Centre (EFC). He was the England director at the Big Lottery Fund, the largest independent funder in the UK and fourth largest in the world. Dharmendra has held senior positions in the public and voluntary sectors and advisor to numerous ministerial policy initiatives across the UK.

Fabrice Comptour is Industry Director within the Defence Industry, Innovation and Armaments Division (D2IA). Previously, he worked at the European Commission in the cabinet/private office of four successive European Commissioners, as well as in DG CNECT. In these positions, Fabrice led initiatives on the defence industry (EDF, ASAP, EDIP), space programmes management (Galileo, Copernicus, Iris²), semiconductor, critical raw material, cyber, hybrid, drones, undersea cables, quantum and AI, standardization, as well as the covid vaccine industrial ramp-up.

Lieutenant-General Greg Smith, MSM, CD is Canada’s Military Representative to NATO. An infantry officer with more than three decades of service, he has held senior leadership appointments across the Canadian Armed Forces in operations, special operations, intelligence, policy, and NATO. His previous roles include Director General International Security Policy, Director General Intelligence Enterprise, and senior appointments at Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE). Lieutenant-General Smith has deployed on operations in Croatia, Afghanistan, and Iraq, and has extensive experience shaping defence policy, international security, capability development, and Alliance affairs.

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