For the foreseeable future, and despite a forecast reduction in the amount of activity, military flying will continue to embrace the diverse requirements of low, medium, and high-level route navigation, as well as the less structured, but more demanding, tactical navigation, principally carried out at low-level. As East-West relations have improved, defence budgets have come under increasing pressure and, whereas military projects have been in the vanguard of navigation system development in the past, the stagnation of military flying rates has been overshadowed by a dramatic expansion in the commercial sector. Consequently, the balance has shifted and many developments in all spheres of navigation are now led by civil requirements. Nevertheless, there continues to be close cooperation within NATO, with nations attempting to keep in step with each other and with international developments.
