NSPA contributes to NATO's deterrence and defence through its ability to acquire and support complex multinational systems, sustaining them throughout their entire life cycle and supporting operations and exercises. By pooling and sharing resources and supporting coalitions of the willing for acquisition projects - not just in the NATO framework but across the Euro Atlantic area - nations can achieve economies of scale and have access to more capable solutions for either national or collective defence.
Support Partnerships Support Partnerships are a multinational cooperation mechanism established on the initiative of two or more NATO nations wishing to organise common support and service activities. Participating Nations provide governance and guidance, whereas NSPA develops capabilities and manages Nations' requirements. This is an effective existing framework enabling the consolidation and centralisation of requirements, reducing costs and logistics footprint and providing a common and efficient support under a ready-to-go legal framework. Nations may also leverage the Support Partnership mechanism to address individual national requirements. NSPA currently manages 41 Support Partnerships across all domains.
Acquisition In 2015, NSPA was appointed by the North Atlantic Council (NAC) to provide armament procurement and acquisition services to NATO. Today, its Acquisition Directorate introduced in 2025 provides a one-stop shop for Acquisition encompassing technical, financial, procurement and legal aspects that can be tailored to customer requirements. The Agency's Acquisition focus is the Acquisition Planning and Development Office (APDO), acting as an immediately available and centralized capability for new acquisition projects. Main programmes: Alliance Future Surveillance and Control (AFSC), initial Alliance Future Surveillance and Control (iAFSC), Next Generation Rotorcraft Capability (NGRC).
Support NSPA supports NATO operations and exercises through real-life support services, such as accommodation, catering and medical services, infrastructure, airfield and port services, fuel and other logistics services. The
Southern Operational Centre (SOC), located in Taranto, Italy, NSPA procures, manages, operates and maintains deployable camp infrastructure and associated contracted services for NATO and its Allies. Additionally, NSPA manages the implementation of
NATO Trust Fund projects, supporting security and defence-related projects and building capabilities in partner countries. NSPA maintains a broad portfolio of products and services in the area of logistics support, such as the NATO Logistics Stock Exchange (NLSE), which allows customers to arrange the exchange of excess spare parts and to manage commonly held stocks, or the General Procurement Shared Services (GPSS), which provides strategic sourcing contracts and access to the NATO eShopping Centre. From Versailles, France, NSPA manages the Central Europe Pipeline System (CEPS), NATO's largest petroleum pipeline system. Created in the early 1950s, CEPS was established for the transport, storage and distribution of different fuel types to supply the military forces of the Alliance in Central Europe. Since 1960, CEPS also delivers jet fuel to major civil airports such as Brussels, Frankfurt, Luxembourg, Schiphol and Zurich. The non-military use of CEPS is permitted by the North Atlantic Council on the condition that priority is given to military capability. In Hungary, the NATO Airlift Management Programme (NAMP) supports the
Strategic Airlift Capability (SAC) and the
Heavy Airlift Wing (HAW) C-17 aircraft. The NAMP acquires, manages and supports airlift assets required for national operations, including those in support of NATO, the
European Union, the United Nations and multinational commitments.
Sustainement NSPA provides, through its Life Cycle Management Business Unit, a broad spectrum of responsive, effective and cost-efficient "cradle to grave" management of defence equipment, products and services to NATO, NATO member and partner nations, individually and collectively. The integrated capability spectrum includes Systems Acquisition and Armaments procurement, life management, including full logistics fleet support, Integrated Logistics Support and Services,
Supply Chain Management and Automation, Strategic Transport and Storage, effective Project Management in all Land, Air, Naval and Joint Services capability domains. ==Structure==