The Trust Behind NATO Airpower — Interview with ITA Admiral Giuseppe Cavo Dragone

In this episode of The Allied Airpower Podcast, Kea Alishia Phlatts sits down with Admiral Giuseppe Cavo Dragone, Chair of the NATO Military Committee, during his visit to Allied Air Command at Ramstein, 25-26 March 2026. As NATO’s senior military officer and principal military adviser to the Secretary General, Admiral Dragone sits at the center of the Alliance’s military decision-shaping process, helping translate the collective judgment of thirty-two Chiefs of Defence into advice for NATO’s political leadership.

It is a role that demands perspective, and Admiral Dragone brings plenty of it. Over the course of nearly five decades in uniform, he has served as a helicopter pilot, jet pilot, ship commander, special forces leader, joint commander, Chief of the Italian Navy, and Chief of Defence before assuming NATO’s top military post. In this conversation, he reflects on how those assignments shaped his understanding of leadership: the need to make decisions under pressure, the burden of command when others look to you for direction, and the reality that no service and no nation succeeds alone anymore.

A major theme throughout the episode is trust. Not as a slogan, but as a military necessity. Admiral Dragone describes trust as the essential ingredient that allows Allied nations to operate as one: trusting that capabilities will integrate, that commitments will hold, and that when one nation is exposed, the others will step forward. That idea runs through his reflections on jointness, coalition warfare, and the practical demands of holding an Alliance together across domains, services, and national perspectives.

The episode also offers a clear view of how he thinks about NATO airpower today. Effective airpower, he argues, is no longer just about aircraft and sorties. It is an integrated enterprise built on intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, command and control, readiness, logistics, sustainment, missile defence, and the ability to connect those capabilities across the air, land, and maritime domains. In other words, modern Allied airpower is not simply about what flies. It is about what connects, what endures, and what can respond fast enough to matter.

That makes his discussion of Eastern Sentry especially timely. Speaking about NATO’s enhanced Vigilance Activity along the eastern flank, Admiral Dragone frames it as both reassurance and deterrence: reassurance to Allies that the Alliance is alert, adaptive, and united, and a warning to potential adversaries that NATO can move quickly, integrate rapidly, and defend its populations without hesitation. His message is straightforward: readiness matters, speed matters, integration matters — but none of it works without trust.

This episode is ultimately about more than one senior leader’s career. It is about how Alliance warfare actually holds together at the highest level: through shared values, collective responsibility, and the confidence that thirty-two nations can act together when the moment demands it.

Recorded Thursday, 26 March 2026.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit natoaircom.substack.com