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Gates: Countering IEDs top priority for NATO

BRUSSELS — Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Friday that countering improvised explosive devices has become a high priority for NATO and that the United States has already begun to put training for IED detection high on its list.

Gates’ remarks came at a news conference after a NATO defense ministers meeting, and he said the United States would soon move accelerate its anti-IED training from seven to 11 countries.

Gates said that Congress had approved the purchase of 100 MRAP “vehicles that we can share with allies” and that arrangements were being made for NATO countries to buy them if they wanted. He also said the United States was providing access to computer databases with lessons learned from IED incidents, and was putting in place aerostats and other equipment to better spot them being planted by insurgents and to track the networks planting them.

Discussing organization finances, Gates said “NATO has outdated structures that bear little relevance for our needs today” and that “we must have a lean but flexible organization.” The defense secretary called for 14 NATO agencies that cost $5 billion to be cut to three and for staff reductions at NATO headquarters.

“We can’t expect sign changes in the military structure and the agencies without reductions at NATO HQ itself,” he said.

On Thursday, NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said NATO “has already found 1.5 billion euros [$1.8 billion] in savings, over the next four years, from our military budget” and that it “will cut the number of committees in this building [NATO headquarters in Brussels] by three-quarters, to less than 100, which means fewer meetings and more efficiency.”

On the threat from Iran, Gates said intelligence officials estimate that production of a sufficient quantity of bomb-quality uranium will occur within one to three years, not including weaponization and delivery systems.

Discussing Afghanistan, Rasmussen described the 130,000 Afghan soldiers and 100,000 Afghan police in Afghanistan as “a real success” and that, “as they get ever better at defending their country, we will be able to take on a supporting role.” He said that about 450 trainers were still needed for NATO’s training mission there.