MAY, 14 - 15 2025
Towards Victory:
Plan Smarter, Act Faster, Strike Harder
The Vauban Sessions are an initiative of the Rapid Reaction Corps – France (CRR-FR) and Forward Global. This annual event brings together senior representatives of the armed forces of NATO Nations as well as EU and NATO bodies to exchange best practices and lessons learned in the digital transformation of Command & Control.
This 7th edition of the Vauban Sessions will be held in Lille in May 2025.
The geopolitical security situation has continued to worsen in Europe and the rest of the world. The return of high-intensity conflict and technological progress both allow and make necessary a rethink of command centre models, in particular the redistribution between the rear and the front line. This approach protects essential resources while reducing the vulnerability of CPs to attacks This new edition of the Vauban Sessions will address resilience and strategy, force generation and projection, the balance between hardening and mobility, and the integration of new technologies.
Each session will open with an introductory lessons learnt speech, to ground the discussions in the reality of today’s conflicts and encourage the sharing of experiences.
WEDNESDAY, MAY 14
by Lieutenant General Benoît Desmeulles, Commander of the Rapid Reaction Corps - France (COMRRC-Fr)
Resilience refers to the ability to prepare for, resist and respond to, and recover quickly from disruptions and shocks. It relies on:
- People: Strategic resilience is based on the ability to field sufficient forces in the initial phases of war, and to ensure the regeneration of these forces over time, in order to cope with human and material losses.
- Equipment: Ensuring the regeneration of equipment, not in the face of wear and tear as in the early days of the 21st century, but in the face of destruction, has once again become an issue. It also poses the question of industrial capabilities and their protection: supply, reserves, but also the sizing of capabilities to meet demand.
- Society: strategic resilience implies a society's ability to withstand the hazards of conflict (bombings, supply issues, daily life), the ordeal of human losses, and the uncertainty and fog of war which can lead to the spread of rumours and can be accentuated by the ultra-fast resonance and propagation of social networks.
The Russian-Ukrainian conflict has demonstrated the importance and complexity of force generation and, above all, regeneration. In addition to the time required for recruitment and training, coalition deployments pose an additional challenge for NATO forces: deploying in a coalition entails extremely complex logistical and interoperability issues, leaving no room for improvisation. The crucial issue of infrastructure (terminals, ports, bridges, tunnels, etc.) and means of projection required for deployment has only recently become a topic of discussion in the EU and NATO. Streamlining the initial processes of planning, mutual support and force generation requires an overhaul of operational standards and training methods to ensure interoperability and gain room for manoeuvre. The ultimate goal is to develop standardised capabilities, such as Allied Reaction Force (ARF) formations, that are coherent, complementary and interoperable, while avoiding duplication. The operational partnership must exist solely for this purpose: to act faster, in close coordination, and to hit the enemy permanently or even definitively.
For all participants
For top-level military authorities, speakers and partners
THURSDAY, MAY 15
Command posts are prime targets for depriving an adversary of the ability to react and make decisions. Their primary function is to communicate, upwards and downwards, to receive information, report on the situation or transmit orders. They are therefore by nature not discreet, and by function 'essential'. The variety of kinetic threats - missiles, shells, and now drones manoeuvring to the point of impact - must lead to a rethink of the organisation of these command centres, and in particular the positioning between the rear (reachback) and the front (deployed, more mobile, or even decoy CPs). The war in Ukraine has seen a resurgence in electronic warfare, combined with cyber attacks. It is further complicated by new modes of conflict, such as space and drones, which necessarily involve mastering data flows. In a context of digitisation of forces, where the volume of communications and information to be processed is literally exploding, and collaborative combat requiring permanent links, the question arises of the trade-off between efficiency and frugality, power and discretion, mobility and protection.
The integration and use of new technologies create as many opportunities as they do operational and integration challenges. The multiplication of IT tools and the irruption of AI are generating growing energy requirements, increasing the digital footprint of all entities. Faced with the need to create surprise, which will encourage the destruction of enemy targets (shortening the localisation destruction loop) while protecting against threats (cyber + EW), it is imperative to identify complementary and scalable Command & Control and artificial intelligence tools, while adapting training methods, particularly in coalition (joint ITIL-type training, etc.), in order to create interoperable formations at least on short notice, regardless of the nature of the mission.
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