From June 5-23, 2023, Allied Command Transformation will improve the interoperability of Allies by supporting the execution of the annual Coalition Warrior Interoperability Exercise.
Allied Command Transformation remains committed to delivering fully interoperable command & control and information technology services to enable Multi-Domain Operations and NATO’s ongoing Digital Transformation. One aspect of this effort is the upcoming Coalition Warrior Interoperability Exercise, which seeks to improve the interoperability of Alliance systems by testing them in the context of a coalition scenario. In doing so, this exercise improves NATO members’ and partners’ ability to act together coherently, effectively, and efficiently to achieve Allied objectives by ensuring the ‘Day One’ connectivity required for all operations.
This year’s Coalition Warrior Interoperability Exercise will take place in Bydgoszcz, Poland from June 5-23, 2023. This event is designed to test and improve the interoperability of Command, Control, Communications, Computers, and Intelligence of NATO and National systems, with particular emphasis on those that will be deployed within a NATO Response Force or Combined Joint Task Force. It also seeks to leverage the human interactions, particularly during the execution of the exercise, to capitalize on potential innovations that might not otherwise be considered. Allied Command Transformation provides direction and management to the exercise program, with the technical testing of fielded, developmental and experimental systems in a coalition scenario running concurrently in several Nations.
Since the inception of this exercise in 1994, the Coalition Warrior Interoperability Exercise has continued to play an important role in de-risking the incorporation of new systems and continually improving the interoperability of existing systems. As noted by Commander Robert Koch, the current Exercise Director,
“The Coalition Warrior Interoperability Exercise has been a cornerstone for achieving interoperability between our diverse systems and services for decades, but in light of NATO 2030, a Multi-Domain Operations-enabled Alliance, and the realization of the New NATO Force Model, the Exercise is more important than ever. This is reflected in the greatly increased scope, rapid growth, and new requirements that Nations are placing on it. Allied Command Transformation is driving the Exercise’s development in line with the NATO Warfighting Capstone Concept and the Alliance Warfare Development Agenda to meet the needs of Nations and realize the NATO 2030 goals.”
In line with past years, a core focus area of this year’s Coalition Warrior Interoperability Exercise is Federated Mission Networking. Nested within the larger exercise, this seeks to de-risk networks ahead of more advanced exercises and confirm the capability of Allies and Partners to successfully integrate their networks. In addition, the exercise also ensures the viability and fidelity of these networks by providing a venue to overcome real-world issues such as signal coverage interference and provide end-to-end communication over heterogeneous networks. These efforts address both Operational Communications Networks and Tactical Communication Networks and Data Links, with the latter receiving increasing attention in recent iterations as the amount of mobile communication increments.
Additional focus areas of this year’s exercise include Multi-Domain Operations, Digital Transformation, and NATO’s newest Domain – Space. As one of Supreme Allied Commander Transformation’s 2023 Priorities, the Coalition Warrior Interoperability Exercise is being leveraged as a proving ground for operational-level innovation and interoperability testing for Multi-Domain Command and Control. In particular, the Exercise’s Operational Command Focus Area is working closely with other Focus Areas to provide an operational background for the execution of the Exercise’s vignettes and test cases across all domains. A novel aspect of this Multi-Domain Operations focus is the inclusion of the Space Focus Area, which seeks to inform the interoperability concerns and design requirements of NATO’s future Space Domain Tool. In doing so, it will help ensure that this tool can be integrated with existing Allied systems and provide a shared, recognized space picture between the Allies.
Another novel aspect of this year’s exercise is the use of a Finnish system called NEBULA to synthesize data from the Coalition Warrior Interoperability Exercise with Exercises Unified Vision and Patriot Blizzard. In doing so, this effort will merge the scenario being played across all exercises, synthesizing and synchronizing data to create a fused intelligence picture.
As part of the Supreme Allied Commander Transformation, General Philippe Lavigne’s Interoperability Continuum, this event takes place alongside the TIDE Sprint and the TIDE Hackathon. Altogether, these events bring together the subject matter experts to explore command and control capabilities and information technology to ensure the interoperability of NATO’s systems now, and into the future.
To learn more about the TIDE Sprint, Coalition Warrior Interoperability Exercise, and the TIDE Hackathon, click here.
