NATO officer says Alliance is ‘stronger than any other’

Commander Craig Raeburn, Chief of Staff for Standing NATO Maritime Group 1 (SNMG1), has said NATO’s ability to coordinate across nations and systems makes it more capable than any single state.

Speaking to me aboard HNLMS Johan de Witt in London, Raeburn described his role as turning strategy into action. “I’m the deputy for the commander, who’s a one-star Dutch officer,” he said. “My role is basically to take the Commodore’s strategic ideas and put them into practice. He does the ‘what I want to do,’ and I do the ‘execute.’ I also act as his deputy when he’s not here.”

Raeburn oversees a multinational staff of twenty officers. “I control a staff of 20, mainly Dutch officers and about five international officers, which include Portuguese, Spanish and German. I’ve had Polish officers in the past, and I’ve had Swedish and Finnish officers working on the staff.”

He said coordination within NATO is straightforward thanks to shared systems and secure communications. “We use common systems, not necessarily common weapons or platforms, but our communications and command and control systems are very similar. We use systems called Link which pass on information of targets and tracking information that can be easily shared with each nation, and our communication system operates within NATO secret boundaries, so we can communicate freely with each other, either over voice or digital networks and satellites.”

Raeburn added that working with officers from across the Alliance is second nature to him. “I’ve probably worked half my naval career in international environments. I’ve worked in South Korea, Yugoslavia and Canada. I taught at the Canadian Warfare School for three years and the Dutch Warfare School for two. I understand the sensibilities, and it’s just a case of finding a common ground and an area where we can work together.”

He said English remains the key to seamless cooperation. “English is the lingua franca for maritime operations. So they all come with that. Cultural barriers can be more of a challenge, but that barrier is easily broken down.”

Asked what message this cooperation sends beyond the Alliance, Raeburn said it demonstrates unity and capability. “It shows that we have that capability, and it is the message that we are strongly together. We can work together, and we can operate together. That’s a real challenge for a single state that wants to put up a threat.”

“Together as NATO, we are considerably stronger than any other nation in the world, especially when we bring the US to bear in that force. It is that case of being stronger together.”