CONFIDENT I AL
2ND DRAFT
The Defence Planning Committee
12.
Meetings of the NATO Defence Planning Committee in Ministerial
Session were held in June and December, 1974. Substantial progress
was made during the year in improving NATO's conventional forces
in accordance with agreed priorities, including the important fields
of anti-armour and low-level air defence. In December, Ministers
agreed that the guidance for NATO defence planning, which they are
due to issue at their next meeting, should include a long-range
defence concept, setting objectives for co-operative efforts within
the framework of existing NATO strategy, in order to obtain maximum
efficiency from the force levels and resources which the Alliance
can reasonably expect to have at its disposal. These co-operative
efforts include studies designed to achieve increased collaboration
and standardisation in the field of defence equipment, on which
progress has already been made with regard, for example, to the
future family of portable infantry weapons; greater rationalisation
of defence tasks, through new co-operative arrangements particularly
in the training and support areas; and improved flexibility in the
use of NATO's forces.
The Nuclear Planning Group
13. As a permanent member of the Nuclear Planning Group ("PG) of
NATO, the United Kingdom has continued to play a leading part in
its work. At their regular half-yearly meetings, NATO Ministers of
Defence have kept under review the balance of strategic nuclear forces
between the Soviet Union and the United States.
Studies are continu-
of possible defensive
ing on the political and military implications
use of nuclear weapons by NATO. The NPG is the forum in which the
discussion of the role of nuclear weapons in NATO's defence is being
actively pursued, and the practical consequences worked out.
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CONFIDENTIAL