NATO Nations discuss multinational funding for Integrated Command and Control system

On 19 and 20 April, 8 NATO Nations met at the NATO C3 Agency (NC3A) in The Hague, Netherlands, to discuss a multinational project to implement further enhancements to NATO's Integrated Command and Control (ICC) system, in order to meet national needs while the Alliance transitions to future air command and control systems.

As this productive event occurred during the disruption of air traffic, NC3A was requested to repeat the workshop for the benefit of all nations on 18 and 19 May 2010.

ICC is currently used at 400 NATO and National sites to support joint air, land, maritime and special forces operations, including the NATO mission in Afghanistan.

Intent to move forward
The primary objective of the meeting was to present and refine - based on Nations' feedback - NC3A's detailed proposal for a multinational ICC project framework, agreements and scope.

The key features of MN ICC solution which makes it interesting to nations are: the collective and rapid determination and implementation of enhancements to the NATO ICC baseline to meet the national requirements, and the provision of a vehicle for ICC support and training for the nations when NATO is transitioning to future Air C2 systems: ACCS and Air C2IS.

"The event was very successful, and dynamic, with much discussion and exchange of ideas. The Nations exhibited a strong intent to move forward with the project," said Jean-Paul Massart, head of the project team, "SHAPE and the NATO Programming Centre (NPC) also attended the workshop and provided statements and briefings in support of the project, corroborating NC3A's belief that this effort is equally beneficial to the nations and to NATO."

The NATO ICC system has been a NATO funded capability since its inception in 1994. The system is currently available to all NATO Command Structure sites as well as to 24 NATO Nations and Sweden. Together this adds up to approximately 400 sites, including ISAF, and is used to support joint, air, land, maritime and special forces operations. The ICC system is NATO accredited and is developed by the NC3A ICC Team; it is maintained and supported in a cooperative venture by the NPC (part of NCSA) and NC3A.

As this current workshop provided affirmation that there is still a strong interest, NC3A will move ahead with a plan to complete, with the Nations, the formation of the multinational ICC project in 2010 and establish and execute the first Programme of Work for it in 2011.

Source: NC3A