Super JEF!

WHY NATO NEEDS A SUPER JOINT EXPEDITIONARY FORCE AND A BRITAIN THAT CAN LEAD IT.

by

John R. Allen, Julian Lindley-French and Jim Townsend

The Choice

War is here, now, already and the need for NATO and its Northern European nations to be demonstrably strong is as great as at any time since the 1980s. Tensions across the Arctic have been highlighted by President Trump’s concerns that Greenland could become a fiefdom of China and Russia if the US does not first act. Concerns that reinforce the vital need for NATO Europeans to develop a credible first responder, high-end, deployable military capability able to operate across NATO’s contested and enormous Northern Flank.  Given divisions within the North Atlantic Council, any such force would also need to operate both under NATO command and as a theater-reach coalition of the willing. What is needed is a British-led Super Joint Expeditionary Force – a Super JEF!

There can be no defense of NATO without the defense of the Arctic and the North Atlantic. Any such defense, and the deterrence that underpins it, will require an expeditionary force with sufficient military weight able to kick down the door anywhere in and around NATO’s Northern area of responsibility (AOR).  A force that goes beyond the old and tired divide of Continental or Maritime Defence and yet combines both new forms of air and expeditionary operations. In other words, a force not unlike the US Marines Corps.

Britain would provide the core of Super JEF because the Arctic and the North Atlantic are where the British can best add value to the collective effort.  First, Britain created the original Joint Expeditionary Force, which is a 10,000 strong multinational rapid reaction force led by Britain’s Standing Joint Force Headquarters. Second, the JEF can function either under NATO command or as a coalition of the Willing.  Third, the JEF has all the right members comprising of Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden in addition to Britain.  Fourth, it is already envisioned as a force designed to undertake multi-domain operations across air, sea, land, space, cyber, information and knowledge. 

Given Britain’s location and the threats it faces the defense of the realm depends first and foremost on the defense of the Arctic and North Atlantic. The problem is that Britain cannot lead the JEF, maintain its commitments under the NATO War Plan to send two fully equipped divisions of up to 15,000 troops each to defend NATO’s Eastern Flank, and afford its bespoke nuclear deterrent under existing defence investment plans. Today, the much-reduced British Army would have difficulty sending one division and not very quickly.  The only way Britain and other NATO European countries can re-create the mass of force that has proved so important in Russia’s war on Ukraine would be to fully embrace robotics.

 

Three external imperatives further drive the choice London must make. First, the 2025 U.S. National Security Strategy (NSS) means NATO’s center of gravity is moving inexorably eastwards to Europe, specifically Germany. Over the next decade Germany will become the indispensable power of European defense.   Second, NATO must be able to deter Russia by denial not punishment.  Moscow is committed to a policy of bite-size aggression and expansionism which can only be stopped at source through effective deterrence.  Third, NATO will need to defend the Euro-Atlantic Area from Greenland to the Black Sea via the North Atlantic.

Per Mare, Per Terram

Like the US Marines Corps a Super JEF would sit at the interface between Special Operators and Specialized Forces.  The UK Commando Force (UKCF) is the equivalent British force  but it is a small light force with limited organic combat support (a light artillery regiment and an engineer squadron) that could only sensibly employed for sustained missions at the less demanding end of the combat spectrum in a major state-on-state conflict…or for a very short time indeed.  Unfortunately, the UKCF encapsulates the disconnect between ends, ways and means of NATO European forces – what there is is very good but there simply is not enough. 

And yet, UK Commando Force is a warfighting force, and it is that Super JEF would need to be a credible fighting force, which it would need to be. The real strength of UKCF is that it is a thinking force that can adapt to changing environments and technologies adeptly. With vision and commitment both UKCF and Super JEF could become the advanced maritime-amphibious-air assault force NATO needs in the Arctic and the North Atlantic with the capability and readiness to set, shape and meet the challenges of theater command.  A Super JEF that is able to operate independently with the appropriate numbers of amphibious shipping and airlift, as well as force protection.  

The darkness before dawn?

Given the threat and the sheer scale of the defensible space in which Super JEF would operate it need to have at least 200,000 personnel strong with some 500 aircraft and all the necessary ships a high-end, future-proved NATO mobile force will require. Super JEF would also need to be seamlessly interoperable with high-end American forces and the Allied Reaction Force. That would mean an appropriate mix of mass and maneuver forces, reinforced by hi tech and a mid-tech legion of drones, intelligent and precision guided hypersonic missiles, offensive and defensive cyber forces and critical space-based systems. 

Given changing geopolitics and the changing character of war a far more effective instrument of military power is simply a fact of geopolitical life for all Europeans. However, the Arctic and the North Atlantic are as much on the frontline of freedom as NATO’s Eastern Flank.  Given the impact of the financial crises of the past twenty years on Europe’s defense vital new military capabilities will only be realized by a regionally-focused multinational effort, a new division of labor within the Alliance, and real technological innovation.  That means making choices and fast.

Semper Fi!

John R. Allen, Julian Lindley-French and Jim Townsend

General (Ret.) John R. Allen is a retired US Marines Corps officer and co-author of Future War and the Defence of Europe (Oxford: Oxford University Press 2022) with Lieutenant-General (Ret.) Ben Hodges and Professor Julian Lindley-French. …

Professor Julian Lindley-French is Chairman of The Alphen Group and co-author with Field Marshal Lord Richards of The Retreat from Strategy: Britain’s Confusion of Values with Interests. (Hurst: London 2026)

JimTownsend is the former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for European and NATO Policy at the Pentagon and now Adjunct Senior Fellow at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS).