Resource Awareness

‘Most of the military officers want to be Commanders, some - operational planners, and very few want to be managers in the Armed Forces. However, they all need to know the management principles and fundamentals of resources that would either give them the tools or constraint them in their command or planner positions, says Lt.Col Mika Kerttunen, Director of the Defence Management and Officership Department on the conclusion of the “Resource Fundamentals” Module for Joint Command and General Staff Course and Civil Servants Course in the Baltic Defence College.

Last week the students learned mostly about the technical domain of a capability – 3Ms: money, manning and materiel that strongly influence both the defence planning and military operations. Mr. Peter Olsthoorn from the Netherlands Defence Academy briefed the students on the human resource management; then Chief of Personnel Departments, Lt.Col Riho Tammistu, from Estonia, Colonel Aleksandrs Stepanovs from Latvia and Captain (Navy) Renius Plėškys from Lithuania shared their views and experiences on the Personnel management in the respective countries.

The students were also introduced to the principles of materiel management, acquisition and procurement, NATO standardisation and codification and NATO resource management.

In addition, Mr. Tomas Jermalavicius, a researcher at International Centre for Defence Studies in Tallinn, and Mr. Gerlof de Wilde, Assistant Director of Research and Technology at European Defence Agency, gave an overview of research and development aspects.

Defence Industry was also present during the week in the College. A dialogue was fostered between the military, civil servants and the industry representatives to give them a better understanding of each other’s needs. General Dynamics European Land Systems-Mowag, represented by Mr. Georg Kapeller (Engineering), gave the students an overview of the industry planning cycle. After the presentation, a demonstration of Piranha 3 Armoured Wheeled Vehicle followed.

Another aspect of Defence Industry – Information Management Systems – was tackled by Mr. Pierre van Brussel (Illias Sollutions), who demonstrated how software systems are used in the defence resource management.

On Friday, the students had an opportunity to listen to the lectures on defence economics, delivered by Dr. Ugurhan Berkok from the Royal Military College of Canada. The students enjoyed the possibility to discuss economics of force generation, economics of alliances and wished they had more time for discussions.