Aircraft
NATO Plays the Agile Combat Employment Card
NATO states military air arms are increasingly developing more agile means of going to war to improve their survivability
Swedish fighter jet
NATO states’ air forces pursue more agile means of going to war to improve survivability.

Agile Combat Employment, or ACE, has become a term increasingly heard around NATO’s air arms strategy. It is, according to a senior officer with a NATO state's air arm, “an operational scheme of maneuver designed to improve resilience and survivability while generating air combat power from both home bases and geographically dispersed locations.”

To achieve such a plan, forces have gotten better prepared to move at short or no notice, with reduced, more agile footprints. A key element involves deploying multi-skilled support personnel. Perhaps, though, the most important facet centers on the employment of dispersed operations, particularly for defensive needs.