Pooling and sharing that works: the Heavy Airlift Wing at five

Without much fanfare, the Heavy Airlift Wing of the independent multinational Strategic Airlift Capability (SAC) Programme turned five years old in the autumn of 2014. There was a low-key ‘birthday celebration’ on 29 August last which did not attract much media attention. But the truth is that the Heavy Airlift Wing is a rare and remarkable achievement of pooling and sharing that has delivered tangible and new operational military capability in Europe. As such, the Heavy Airlift Wing demonstrates that not only can multinational pooling and sharing work – but that it is also a smart way of jointly procuring and owning new capabilities for countries too small to do it alone.