Paris - Air Force Gen. Jean-Paul Palomeros, chief of staff of the French air force, was nominated by French President François Hollande as the new head of NATO’s strategic command military centre in Norfolk, Virginia,  USA. The air force commander will be in charge of maintaining NATO’s military capabilities in an age of austerity and shrinking defense budgets.
The nomination was endorsed on Monday by the North Atlantic Council, the alliance’s governing body.
Palomeros (pictured) will replace fellow Frenchman Gen. Stephane Abrial, who in 2009 became the first non-American officer to head a major command in North America.
One of the tasks will be the “smart defense,” a concept under which NATO’s 28 member nations pool resources to increase cost-efficiency as military expenditures are declining in Europe and the United States.
NATO’s seven-month bombing campaign of Libya last year, conducted primarily by European members, exposed serious shortages in their strategic transport, aerial surveillance, air refueling and unmanned drones, most of which had to be supplied by the United States.
NATO hopes that member nations will put aside concerns over sovereignty and formally agree to create joint defense capabilities – a goal that has proven elusive in the organization’s 63-year history.
NATO’s other strategic command – Allied Command Operations, which oversees all military operations, including the war in Afghanistan – is based in Mons, Belgium. It is headed by US Navy Admiral James Stavridis, who was scheduled to leave this summer but has been asked to extend his tour of duty until at least the end of 2012.