The first year into the existence of NORDEFCO’s initiative at delivering more common procurement projects, expectations have risen. There is an expectation of seeing the fruition of more common procurement projects over the course of the next 18 months. More common procurement projects, more cooperation about life-cycle support, from common maintenance and spare parts, to common stockpiling and pooling of resources.

The first examples indicating that the strategy is a step in the right direction will become apparent this fall. Most tellingly are the steps taken to pool certain type of material, as the shipment of 2 complete sets of Norwegian Base Camp Material to Mali is testament to. The sets are leased by the Norwegian Defence Logistics Organisation (NDLO), to the Swedish Defence Material Administration (FMV). It is a distinct example of the advantages that Nordic countries see in closer integration: lower costs, the retainment of a capability, and the ability to tackle an urgent operational need.

While this example is a great positive for NORDEFCO, the next step is of a more technocratic persuasion; the bread and butter of Nordic Armaments Cooperation, namely the screening process. This process is in it’s simplicity about numbers. The way it works is twofold: 1) each nation brings with it a certain number of national projects it wants to propose for cooperation, and 2) the nations sit down together to sift through (screen) the compiled list of projects in order to identify cooperation possibilities.

In recent years the number of inputs to the screening have declined and bottomed out. For all practical purposes that means less opportunities for cooperation, and in turn: less common procurement, and less common life cycle support. In order for NORDEFCO to exploit the current positive initiatives the NDLO-FMV agreement is a testament to, a focus on input to the annual screening is important. Exploiting the economies of scale is essential to any traditional procurement project; exploiting the principle of volume to success ratio for NORDEFCO is paramount. It is time to step up and deliver yet more.