Britain has taken command of NATO’s Atlantic headquarters with twenty-seven of its own seventy-one posts there still unfilled, and the Ministry of Defence does not expect to complete them until the end of 2027, according to written evidence submitted to the Defence Committee.
The Ministry of Defence supplied the figures in answer to follow-up questions from the committee’s High North inquiry, after members asked for the percentage and actual numbers of British-allocated NATO posts at the headquarters that are currently filled.
The department said: “The UK holds over 1000 NATO posts, which are currently filled at around 90% – one of the highest fill rates in the Alliance. Fill rates naturally fluctuate as posts are created, filled and rotated. The UK holds 71 out of the 494 Joint Force Command Norfolk (JFC Norfolk) posts; 44 of these have already been filled, with the remaining 27 posts due to be filled by the end of 2027. The UK will assume command of JFC Norfolk from the United States in September 2026, when General Nick Perry will take up the 4* Commander (COM) role.”
Joint Force Command Norfolk is the NATO headquarters responsible for the North Atlantic, established in 2019 and declared fully operational in 2021 as the alliance reckoned with Russian submarine activity returning to Cold War levels. It is the only NATO command headquarters based in North America, co-located with the United States Second Fleet at Norfolk, Virginia, and its area of responsibility covers the sea lines of communication between North America and Europe that any reinforcement of the continent depends on.
General Nick Perry took up the four-star Commander role in September, putting a British officer in charge of the headquarters that would run the Atlantic in a crisis. The Royal Navy has long argued that anti-submarine warfare in the Greenland Iceland United Kingdom gap is where Britain contributes most distinctively to NATO, and the command appointment follows that logic.
“The Royal Navy has long argued that anti-submarine warfare in the Greenland Iceland United Kingdom gap is where Britain contributes most distinctively to NATO, and the command appointment follows that logic”
How does this have credibility when most Astute class SSN are alongside in long term maintenance so not ready to patrol the North Atlantic?