In an Alliance of 30 nations, how does NATO ensure that multinational units and partners can operate as one? Interoperability – the ability to act together coherently, effectively and efficiently to achieve Allied objectives – is the foundation of all NATO missions and the core ambition of the NATO Coalition Warrior Interoperability Exercise (CWIX).
Today, more than ever, the Alliance must remain agile and aligned at a moment’s notice; CWIX 2022 hones in on operational readiness. Experts test and develop Federated Mission Networking (FMN) in the operational context as nations prepare for multinational NATO commitments like the NATO Response Force, Very High Readiness Joint Task Force, and Initial Follow on Forces Group. Allies and partners train and strengthen their own military capabilities at CWIX, while ensuring interoperability with coalition partners. The NATO FMN initiative is a governed conceptual framework consisting of people, processes and technology to plan, prepare, establish, use and terminate mission networks in support of federated operations.
Other highlights include an exploration of Big Data and how it can enhance civil-military cooperation and situational awareness, using ‘combat cloud infrastructure’ to form a baseline for successful multi-domain operations. A new focus area this year – Space – will test capabilities that enable information from national space assets to be extracted, shared, and exploited across the Alliance.
In addition to improving systems on the ground, CWIX is a cost-effective way for nations to look ahead and anticipate challenges in an environment ripe for collaboration. By testing emerging technologies, uncovering shortfalls, and integrating state-of-the-art solutions into fielded and near-fielded capabilities, Allies and partner nations ensure that their future deployable capabilities are interoperable by design.
Experimentation bridges the gap between uncertainty and confidence, which can be the difference between mission failure and success. In today’s dynamic security environment, CWIX ensures that those who defend our collective security and protect our values can do so with greater speed, confidence, and resilience.
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Background: The Coalition Warrior Interoperability eXploration, eXperimentation, eXamination eXercise, or CWIX, is led annually by NATO Headquarters Supreme Allied Commander Transformation located in Norfolk, VA, USA. At CWIX, allies and partners ensure that they can interact, connect and communicate whenever and wherever required.
The three weeks annual event is hosted by NATO’s Joint Force Training Centre in Bydgoszcz, Poland, to support the continuous improvement of interoperability.
CWIX 2022 started on 6 June and will last until 24 June. Over three weeks, more than 1,500 attendees from 35 allied and partner nations, and organisations test more than 340 current, near-term, experimental, and future command and control capabilities across seven networks. At CWIX, engineers, operators, and managers deep-dive into NATO’s most pressing interoperability challenges, from friendly force tracking, to air operations, all the way to space.
At CWIX 2022, experts make progress in 18 of the following Focus Areas:
• Air
• Communications
• Cyber
• Data Centric Security
• Federated Mission Networking Core Services
• Federated Mission Networking Exercise
• Friendly Force Tracking
• Future Core Services
• Geographical, Meteorological and Oceanographic Information
• Joint Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance
• Land
• Logistics - Medical - Movement & Transportation
• Maritime
• Modelling & Simulation
• Multilateral Interoperability Programme
• Operational Command
• Space
• Tactical Data Links
More on NATO ACT’s interoperability continuum that links three major HQ SACT interoperability events; Coalition Warrior Interoperability Exercise (CWIX), Think-Tank for Information Decision and Execution (TIDE) Sprint, and TIDE Hackathon:
www.act.nato.int/federated-interoperability
Text: HQ SACT PAO
