Stavanger, Norway – Held November 11 to 13 at the Joint Warfare Centre (JWC), the NATO Lessons Learned Fall Week 2025, highlighted the importance of NATO’s lessons learned capability in enabling the continuous transformation of the Alliance.
Under the lead of Headquarters Supreme Allied Commander Transformation (HQ SACT), the conference addressed a range of lessons learned topics, such as ensuring NATO is learning from Russia’s war against Ukraine and improving NATO’s lessons learned collection, delivery and exploitation.
More than 50 lessons learned practitioners from the NATO Command Structure headquarters, including HQ SACT, Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE), Joint Analysis and Lessons Learned Centre (JALLC) and the Joint Analysis, Training and Education Centre (JATEC); international military staff and personnel from NATO centres of excellence attended the conference.
Group Captain Paine, JALLC Lessons Learned Analysis Division Head, said: “This week has brought together NATO’s lessons experts to crowd around NATO’s most pressing problems with lessons learned. Such an integrated approach has led to clear, prioritized and agreed solutions. A total success!”
One of the highlights of the agenda was the discussion on the integration of lessons learned processes into Audacious Training, which aims to challenge commanders with real-time operational dilemmas and security challenges in a realistic digitalized training environments.
On November 14, Brigadier General Sandris Gaugers, Assistant Chief of Staff Multi-Domain Force Development Directorate at HQ SACT, visited the JWC to discuss NATO’s lessons learned capability development.
Brigadier General Gaugers said: “We need to reflect on our shared experiences in the lessons learned field and identify new challenges and opportunities, especially since the invaluable addition of JATEC to our community.”
The JALLC has hosted the annual NATO Lessons Learned Conference on behalf of Supreme Allied Commander Transformation (SACT) since 2003.
In addition to bringing NATO commands and affiliated entities together, the NATO Lessons Learned Conference presents an opportunity to engage with partners and representatives from industry and academia to share insights on innovation and relevant new technologies.
Jackie Eaton, the JALLC’s Principal Operational Research Analyst, explained that these events “build understanding of the importance of lessons learned in contributing to the Alliance’s Transformation, promote a learning mindset across NATO, and ensure learning from experience is driving rapid change and adaptation of our forces to the evolving security environment.”
Andrew Eden, the JWC’s Lessons Learned Analyst said: “The demands on both JWC and our training audiences in Allied Command Operations will be high, but meeting these demands will give us confidence in proven plans, experienced teams, and unity of effort.”
