The NATO Codification System: A Bridge to Global Logistics Knowledge

The NATO Codification System NCS has been in place since the mid-1950s. It provides standards for the use of a common stock identification system throughout the NATO alliance. We tend to take this common language of NATO logistics for granted in field operations. The NCS is quickly appreciated, however, when the operational commander finds himself in a joint environment with partner countries each using something different. In his address to the 8th NATO Symposium on Codification, in May 1997, General de Brigade Jean-Marc Renucci, Chief de la Division Organization et Logistique, Etat-Major des Armees France, spoke of his experience during the peacekeeping operations in the former Yugoslavia. He explained how multinational coalitions have been increasingly used for peacekeeping since the fall of the Berlin Wall. In the former Yugoslavia, for example, more than 30 nations were involved under the framework of the United Nations. Gen. Renucci described the patchwork of UN battalions, Non-Governmental Organizations NGOs, and other charitable agencies. The experience of the French Forces was that the lack of a common technical language led to an intolerable waste of resources. With the transfer of authority and responsibility from the UN to NATO, the forces were able to set up a very efficient system of cross-support, specifically through the use of the NCS. The NCS is an invisible partner in the day-to-day business of logistics. Beginning in the United States, and then expanding to NATO, multinational use of the NCS today is growing at a faster rate than ever before. This article provides an overview of this little publicized aspect of international logistics support.