Battlefield Information Collection and Exploitation Systems Enabling Multinational Information Sharing Coalition Information Sharing Building Capabilities for Multinational Interoperability in an Era of Austerity Glynne Hines BICES Group Executive Director ghines@bices.org BICES Group Executive NATO Headquarters, Brussels, Belgium
OUTLINE Background (Alliance Perspective) Requirement Challenges and Considerations BICES Approach Possible Alternate Approach(es) Questions & Discussion 2
Background 3
ACCORDING TO NATO (1) NATO defines interoperability as The ability of systems, units, or forces to provide services to and accept services from other systems, units, or forces and to use the services so exchanged to enable them to operate effectively together. Specifically, it enables forces, units and/or systems to operate together and allows them to share common doctrine and procedures, each others infrastructure and bases, and to be able to communicate. Interoperability reduces duplication, enables pooling of resources, and produces synergies among the 28 Allies, and whenever possible with partner countries. 4
ACCORDING TO NATO (2) Through its interoperability directives NATO, has recognized that widespread interoperability is a key component in achieving effective and efficient operations. In many of the operations worldwide in which NATO nations are engaged, they participate together with a wide variety of other organizations on the ground. Such organizations include coalition partners from non-nato nations, Non- Governmental Organizations and industrial partners. The NATO Interoperability Standards and Profiles (NISP) provide the necessary guidance and technical components to support project implementations and transition to a NATO Network Enabled Capability (NNEC). The Allied Data Publication 34 (ADaTP- 34) NISP STANAG 5524, catalogues Consultation, Command and Control (C3) standards usable in NATO. Work on the NISP is performed under the NATO C3. 5
NATO S LEADERSHIP VIEW An Alliance of 28 nations can only work effectively together in joint operations if provisions are in place to ensure smooth cooperation. NATO has been striving for the ability of NATO forces to work together since the Alliance was founded in 1949. Interoperability has become even more important since the Alliance began mounting out-of-area operations in the early 1990s. NATO Secretary General Chicago Summit 6
DEFENCE MINISTERS - 2013... From 2016 onwards, we will conduct such major live exercises on a regular basis, with a broader scope and covering the full range of Alliance missions, the Secretary General said. And he added: We have also agreed today to draw up a broader concept for training and exercises up to 2020 to make sure that everything we do is coherent and connected, within the Alliance and with partner countries. 7
NATO S RELATED INITIATIVES Connected Forces Initiative Joint ISR Intelligence Reform Smart Defence Partnership 8
Requirement 9
THE ENVIRONMENT Joint All operations will involve army, navy, air forces and special forces; Inter-agency Many operations will include other governmental forces (police, gendarmerie etc); Multi-national Most operations will be multinational and may be nationally or Alliance-led; Public At some point, non-governmental organizations will become engaged. 10
THE ENVIRONMENT Joint Conclusion: Any solution must be capable of facilitating/enabling information access and exchange across the full-spectrum of users potentially in separate domains but to the maximum degree possible, in a mission domain environment. All operations will involve army, navy, air forces and special forces; Inter-agency Many operations will include other governmental forces (police, gendarmerie etc); Multi-national Most operations will be multinational and may be nationally or Alliance-led; Public At some point, non-governmental organizations will become engaged. 11
CAPABILITIES (1) Email (with attachments) Browsing Chat Voice/video Ability to compartmentalize or run COIs Discovery, storage and retrieval in a web environment In an appropriately secure environment 12
CAPABILITIES (2) Collaborative tools Analysis tools Request for intelligence/information tools Information management tools Basic office applications Full-motion video On the move In an appropriately secure environment 13
Challenges and Considerations 14
THE CHALLENGE OF COALITIONS Who decides to establish/federate a mission network? How does the network relate to the mission? Who (is anybody) in charge? What services/functionality is required? How will you share services and functionality? What information/intelligence is shared? What/whose security rules apply? Who is the accreditation authority? 15
INTEROPERABILITY CONSIDERATIONS (1) Technical standards Data standards and compatibility Release markings Network control Information Assurance and Cyber Defence Internal and external Coalitions are come as you are 16
INTEROPERABILITY CONSIDERATIONS (2) Nations have/will want to use their systems that s where they are comfortable: Training Language Nations may not trust systems provided by another nation (embedded collection devices) Who establishes the crypto solution? How much bandwidth is provided and by whom? 17
INTEROPERABILITY CONSIDERATIONS (3) Can friend of the day become an enduring partner? How dynamic is the coalition how dynamic should the network be? Joining and leaving partners Standing JMEI How is the resulting federation governed? What happens to the data and information when the coalition dissolves? 18
ACHIEVING INTEROPERABILITY MECHANISMS Interoperable solutions can only be achieved through the effective employment of standardization, training, exercises, lessons learned, demonstrations, tests and trials. By strengthening relationships with the defence and security industry and by using open standards to the maximum extent possible, NATO is pursuing interoperability as a force multiplier and a streamliner of national efforts. 19
ACHIEVING INTEROPERABILITY COMPONENTS Interoperability does not necessarily require common military equipment. What is important is that the equipment can share common facilities, and is able to interact, connect and communicate, exchange data and services with other equipment. Through its technical (including hardware, equipment, armaments and systems), procedural (including doctrines and procedures) and human (including terminology and training) dimensions, and complemented by information as a critical transversal element, interoperability supports the implementation of such recent NATO initiatives as Smart Defence and Connected Forces. 20
ACHIEVING INTEROPERABILITY EVOLUTION NATO militaries have achieved high level of interoperability through decades of joint planning, training and exercises. More recently, Alliance members have put their interoperability into practice and developed it further during joint operations and missions in the Balkans, the Mediterranean, Afghanistan, Libya and elsewhere. These operations have also enabled NATO s partner countries to improve interoperability with the Alliance. 21
BICES Approach Machine Translation E-mail & Directory Svcs GIS Web Services Search, Retrieval & Pub. Free Text Search Collaboration tools Secure Voice (VOIP)) 22
BICES A MULTINATIONAL CAPABILITY IN-BEING Battlefield Information Collection & Exploitation Systems Established in 1999... by the Nations A collaborative space for intelligence Well recognized trust & confidence Off-the-shelf & custom-designed technical solutions... integrating common and national capabilities Multinational intelligence coordination & policy function for Nations 23
BICES MISSION To enable sharing and exchange of intelligencerelated information and intelligence between and among the Participants, NATO and other Nations and Organizations as determined by the Participants through the use of interoperable national and NATO intelligence support systems. BICES capabilities are intended for national, NATO or coalition use, in peace, crisis and war, as determined by the Participants. This definition encompasses activity from the strategic, operational to tactical levels. 24
BICES ENVIRONMENT 25
THE BICES COMMUNITY UK USA Albania Belgium Turkey European Union Bulgaria Spain Australia Austria Canada Slovenia Croatia Slovakia Romania Switzerland Ireland Czech Republic Denmark Portugal Estonia Poland Norway Sweden Finland France Netherlands New Zealand Germany Greece Luxemburg Hungary Lithuania Italy Iceland 26
BICES CHALLENGES Consensus-driven Degree of commitment Swimmers, floaters, and sinkers Competing priorities Nations NATO Self-funding not NATO Common Funded Understanding Trust 27
BICES SOLUTIONS Open consultation and discussion COTS-based solutions Open standards no proprietary solutions Common training standards As simple as possible Proof is in acceptance - a solution/product that works Non-competitive: deliver an integrated solution that no other organization can deliver at a fair price. Do one thing and do it well! 28
BICES AND THE AMN NSWAN ANSF MINERVA NSWAN CAPITALS simplified AFGHAN MISSION NETWORK THEATRE BICES IFC BICES NAT A NATIONAL NETWORKS NATIONAL NETWORKS NATIONAL NETWORKS NATIONAL NETWORKS BICES NAT B BICES-N BICES NAT X BICES SOF NNN DMZ BICES-N SOF NNN NATIONAL SYSTEMS (e.g. SIPERNET) NATIONAL SYSTEMS (e.g. NATIONAL SIPERNET) SYSTEMS (e.g. SIPRNet) 29
FEDERATION AND THE AMN NATO/ISAF REL TO ISAF NATO REL TO ISAF 30
BICES AND THE FMN Z BICES Z Z Z 31
BICES AND AD HOC COALITIONS (1) Trusted Information Flow Regulators Temporary Coalition Partners (with and without a security agreement) BICES Coalition 1 (BEL, USA) TIFR Controlled Interface TCP-1/2 Nation_A (Coalition 1) Coalition 2 (DEU, USA) Coalition 3 (BEL, DEU, USA) Controlled Interface TCS1 TCS2 TCS3 Controlled Interface Controlled Interface Nation_B (Coalition 2) Nation_C (Coalition 2, Coalition 3) Policy, Procedures, Technology, Agreements... 32
BICES AND AD HOC COALITIONS (2) 33
BICES SUPPORTING NATO S AMBITIONS Connected Forces Initiative Joint ISR Intelligence Reform Smart Defence Partnership 34
Possible Alternate Approach(es) 35
POTENTIAL APPROACHES Centrally provided solution (by NATO) Common solution acquired by nations (inside and outside of NATO) Solution provided by a nation Federating with a common core Federating through interconnection 36
Concluding Remarks 37
CONCLUDING REMARKS Coalitions need to have interoperable information exchange and sharing capabilities Interoperability needs to be considered (and exercised) well in advance of the operational need Coalitions are come-as-you-are and leave when you want to Acceptable (to the coalition) security is paramount (Agreed) common standards are essential Federation is ultimately the preferred approach Trust rules the day 38 20
Questions and Discussion 39
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