Armed Forces Academy of general Milan Rastislav Stefanik (SVK AFA) was appointed by HQ Supreme Allied Commander Transformation (SACT) as the Department Head (DH) for Land Operations (LANDOPS) Education and Training (E&T) on February 24^th, 2025.  

The role of DH for LANDOPS is shared with Swedish Armed Forces Internation Centre – SWEDINT and both under Deputy Chief of Staff Multi-Domain Force Development (DCOS MDFD) guidance are responsible for matching the requirements, identified and managed by Requirements Authority (RA), with E&T solutions and for the coordination of those solutions.  The DH ensures that solutions identified are delivered in the most effective, efficient and affordable manner through NATO Allies, Partners and Non-NATO Entities (NNEs).

Due to this role, participation at NATO Individual Training and Education Conference (NITEC) and Individual Training and Education Planning Board (IPB) is essential. NATO has been reflecting on changing environment and that is why it stresses the importance of keeping the Education and Individual Training (E&IT) up to date and all NATO approved courses to be revised every three years, where DH plays the role of the coordinator of the suitable courses to be provided.  

Other topics discussed during the NITEC and IPB, which took place on November 18^th – 20^th, 2025 in NATO School Oberammergau in Germany were for example adoption of Cross-Domain Command Concept (CDC) into E&IT as well as importance of resilience within the field of Education and Training in all levels of training. Presentations were only one part of both conferences, other important portions were Questions and Answers Panels as well as breakout sessions, where all participants practically worked on different emerging topics.  Substantial part of time was designated also to networking, which is essential for improvements and enhanced cooperation.   

SVK AFA delegated acting Chief of Internation Courses Department (ICD) LTC Miroslav MAJTNER and Ms. Zuzana FREISSL as responsible persons for DH role to take part at the conferences, in order to be able not only to fulfill the role of DH properly and responsibly, but also represent SVK AFA as the partner within the Alliance, who follows trends and expectations within Multi Domain Operations defined as “Orchestration of military activities, across all operational domains and environments, synchronized with non-military activities, to enable the Alliance to create converging effects at the speed of relevance.”