The occurrence and rapid spread of COVID-19 has shaken the entire world. Initially seen as a local phenomenon in Wuhan or, in the worst-case scenario only in China, it turned in less than two months in a global problem.

   The speed with which the virus spread and the level of its impact paralysed, one by one, countries which had a normal social and economic life and made them focus almost exclusively on taking measures to control and stop the spread of the disease and cure those infected.

   Under these circumstances all other activities have been either cancelled (e.g. tourism) or put on hold.

   The Defence sector is one of the affected areas but, at the same time, it is directly involved in a scenario that seems to come from a Sci-Fi movie.

   All the countries affected by COVID-19, and we can see that the pandemic hit every continent, are taking actions to fight as efficient as they can with an enemy that, until yesterday, was not taken into consideration. The Armed Forces have been called to take part in this war and their weapons of choice are multiple. Below, I will try to describe some of the military actions taken in the fight against the coronavirus.

   Limit the Spread

   The most common way of spreading the virus is through social contact and large crowds represent the most aggressive way.

   Military exercises planned for this period were such a risk factor. Therefore, it has been decided to either cancel, or downsize some of them:

-           -  NATO’s “Europe Defender 2020”, planned between the 20th of April and 20th of May, was scaled down in order to limit the movement of troops from the US and other countries through Europe, whilst other countries, including Romania, decided to cancel their participation;

-           -  “Cold Response” planned by Norway between the 12th and 18th of March was cancelled;

-           -  Other exercises, where US troops were planned to attend  have been either concluded earlier (“Juniper Cobra”, in Israel), or cancelled (“African Lion”).

   In order to limit the spread of the virus the Armed Forces were also called, where needed, to support the police to enforce restrictions on movement imposed by the authorities.

   Fighting the Virus

   The Armed Forces have capabilities that can be used by the civilian authorities either to treat the infected or for logistic support.

   In some countries, military medical facilities have been made available to the civilian authorities for the treatment and transport of patients, as well as for logistic support, such as:

-         The US Navy sent to the New York City Harbour the hospital ship USNS Comfort with 1,000 beds to help relieve city hospitals overwhelmed by coronavirus patients.

https://www.politico.com/states/new-york/city-hall/story/2020/03/30/usns-comfort-arrives-in-new-york-city-1269589

-          -   On 18th of March, the UK Ministry of Defence activated the “COVID Support Force”, and up to 20,000 troops can be called to assist the civilian authorities. One of the first measures was to have the helicopters from the Aviation Task Force on stand-by, to support the medical evacuations requested by the civilian authorities.

MOD Crown Copyright (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/covid-support-force-the-mods-contribution-to-the-coronavirus-response)

-           - Germany too mobilized its Armed Forces to fight against the pandemic. One of the many measures adopted by this country was to use military medical transport to bring COVID-19 infected patients from Italy and France to German hospitals.

-            - In Romania, the Ministry of National Defence operationalised a ROL 2 military hospital in Bucharest and purchased from the Netherlands a Mobile Isolation and Treatment Modular System that was set up in Constanta. Mild and moderate COVID-19 patients can be treated in these facilities.

-             - NATO, through the Euro-Atlantic Disaster Response Coordination Centre (EADRCC), is centralising the member states and partners’ requests related to the fight against the coronavirus. Romania used this mechanism to access the Alliance’s strategic airlift capabilities for transporting medical equipment from South Korea.

   The NATO Air Forces are also used to repatriate own nationals and nationals from partner countries stuck in various parts of the world because of civilian flights cancellations.

   The Defence Industry

   The defence industry is also affected by the pandemic. The effects are not only immediate, but can have an impact on future capabilities if the crisis lasts longer and the qualified personnel lose their jobs.

   In order to retain the workforce, some companies decided to temporarily reconvert their production to medical equipment, needed for hospital treatment and in low supply for the large number of infected.

   Large US companies, such as Ford and General Electric announced that they would jointly produce ventilators. NATO is using its structures, such as NATO Support and Procurement Agency – NSPA to finance the private sector in Italy in order to produce masks and ventilators for hospitals. Israel Aerospace Industry (IAI) announced its involvement in the production of ventilators by transforming one of its air defence missiles production lines.

   Instead of Conclusions

   While affected by COVID-19 just like the rest of society, the defence has also been called to support the fight against the pandemic alongside those who, this time, are in the frontline – medics. Thus, the defence, together with the law enforcement (Police and Gendarmerie) is serving a noble cause - protecting the citizens.

   The role of defence is diversifying more and more in the general context we are now and, after the battle is over and won, we can expect it will be called to join the economic reconstruction effort, mainly to help restart and ensure the good functioning of the economy.