Mirbahs: Defence Needs Bolder Decisions and Combat Capability, Not Just Perfect Accounting

Aivis Mirbahs, deputy chief of staff of the NATO Multinational Division headquarters, has called on Latvian society to consider what it expects from its soldiers: to account flawlessly for every euro spent, or to carry out their tasks effectively on the battlefield. He stressed that the defence sector must be able to take riskier decisions and accept that failures will happen. Mirbahs raised the question while discussing the priorities of Latvia's defence system.

Risk and speed

"Soldiers are not afraid. Soldiers understand the risk and make decisions to reduce it," Mirbahs said. He referred to US General Dwight Eisenhower, who, he said, realised after the Second World War that the defence ministry, industry and military units had to work much faster. According to Mirbahs, a similar approach is described in the book "Kill Chain" by Christian Brose.

Mirbahs acknowledged that some projects will fail — eight or nine out of ten — and that faster procurement will raise corruption risks. These, he said, are side effects, but there is no other choice.

The Estonian example

He recalled recent reports from Estonia, where the national audit office found that the armed forces had no supporting evidence for procurements worth 1.3 billion euros, roughly half of the defence budget. Mirbahs said, however, that there is no reason to gloat over a neighbour's problems, as the armed forces of Latvia and Estonia operate within the same corps. He quoted the Estonian armed forces commander, who asked whether officers are wanted as "parquet officers" counting socks for every euro spent, or as people who fight on the battlefield. Mirbahs added that he was once the head of an institution himself and was administratively punished, so he knows how painful such a process can be.

Structures follow functions

Mirbahs urged against hurrying to create new units and centres. He recalled the military principle that units follow functions and functions follow the objective, so the desired outcome must be defined first and it should be checked whether existing structures could achieve it through reorganisation. When buying quickly, one must not end up with systems that cannot be connected together.

In his view, Latvia should not wait for an ideal structure but should introduce new systems and test them in practice, learning from Ukraine's experience, buying from industry and letting soldiers train with the equipment.