NATO’s Military Committee paid a two-day working visit to the Joint Warfare Center in Stavanger, Norway, one of NATO’s Centres of Excellence for specific military-related expertise at the invitation of Allied Command Transformation (ACT).
The committee also attended the NATO Coalition Warrior Interoperability Demonstration (CWID) 2009 in Lillehammer to take stock of the progress made in training, technical evolution and interoperability between the Alliance Military Forces. Norwegian Chief of Defence Staff Vice Adm. Jan Eirik Finseth welcomed committee members.
CWID is an annual event under NATO Military Committee direction, designed to bring about continuous improvement in interoperability for the Alliance.
CWID tests verify the status of interoperability among current, future and experimental Command, Control, Communications, Computing and Intelligence systems (C4I).
Fourteen nations actively participate–12 NATO Nations and two Partnership-for-Peace nations–from all operational environments, including Air, Maritime and Land, for a total of 90 systems tested.
Gen. Jon Ragnar Krogstad, commander the Norwegian Defence CIS Centre, told the Military Committee about the event scenario which offers a controlled environment where national systems, emerging technical solutions and developments of fielded systems can be evaluated and assessed to identify problems and find solutions to interoperability issues. The simulated scenario provides a venue to prove, disprove and, most importantly, improve NATO, national and coalition interoperability to be applied in ongoing and future operations.
NATO CWID 2009 is focused on supporting NATO operations led by Allied Joint Force Command Brunssum, in particular NATO’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) operation in Afghanistan.
At the Joint Warfare Centre, the Military Representatives met Lt. Gen. Wolfgang Korte, Joint Warfare Centre commander, and were briefed on the ISAF Pre-Deployment Training, which is crucial to mission success. This activity is conducted on behalf of Allied Command Transformation in support of JFC Brunssum.
The Centre is responsible for training key levels of command and control in the ISAF Command structure to a common NATO standard, which allows optimum deployment of military personnel to conduct operations in a rapid and efficient manner.
The Military Committee also had an informal discussion on education, training and exercises focused on today’s operational requirements. In this regard, NATO’s Multiple Futures Project (MFP) and the Education, Training, Exercises and Evaluation (ETEE) Studies conducted by ACT are valuable tools for framing discussions on key issues: how new technology can improve and better support education, training and exercises.
Adm. Giampaolo Di Paola, chairman of NATO’s Military Committee, emphasized the importance of these demonstrations to NATO’s military representatives in contributing to their better understanding of the requirements, evolution and implementation of new technologies in future and ongoing military operations.