Technology is not the solution to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s (NATO) interoperability issues, according to a senior Army official.
Army Maj. Gen. Walter Piatt, deputy commanding general of U.S. Army Europe and U.S. Army NATO, said Thursday the interoperability challenge is about relationships: building trust and understanding each other’s capabilities and procedures, which are key to coalition operations ranging from disaster response to full-out war, according to a Defense Department statement.
Photo: NATO
Piatt said the challenge is communication.
“It’s flawed for us to say ‘Here’s the high-tech solution, everyone buy our answer,’” Piatt told reporters during a Defense Writers Group breakfast in Washington. “We have about 13 different systems across the alliance and none of them can talk to one another.”
Piatt said a Hungarian joint tactical air controller recently called in a German Tornado fighter jet to provide fire for a United States armored battalion. “That’s interoperability,” Piatt said.
The first step to improving interoperability, Piatt said, was exchanging interoperability cells, which he described as small units moving in, perhaps with communications equipment, so a partner nation could talk to U.S. brigade headquarters better. Piatt said the U.S.’s next step is working on ways to connect to a new system.
NATO in December will perform Trident Lance, an Article 5 major joint operation (MJO), to exercise controlling a multinational deployed force during decisive operations. The exercise, which Piatt called a simulated command post exercise, will take place Dec. 5-12 in Grafenwoehr, Germany. Piatt said NATO will also host an industry day Dec. 8, inviting industry from all over the world to address NATO interoperability challenges.
Piatt said the industry day is not an opportunity for businesses to pitch products to NATO, but is more of a conversation about how to address challenges.
“We don’t want to look at what you want to sell us,” Piatt said. “We’re going to try to…explain this…then show gaps to industry, and then let’s work on some solutions together.”
One technological challenge to interoperability, Piatt said, was that different nations use different encryption devices, despite the devices being built by the same manufacturer. Though Piatt said this is a problem, he cautioned that the alliance didn’t overreact.
“We don’t want to solve this so quickly that we jump at the first thing somebody offers,” Piatt said.