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12 5 2017

Agency's support during Trident Javelin 2017

CIS Support Unit (CSU) Stavanger, the Agency's team in Norway, contributed to setting up and sustaining the exercise's complex communication and information system environment across various locations.

In this role, the team provided assistance to the NATO CIS Group, which took the role of overall CIS Coordinating Authority for Trident Javelin, held between 25 September and 17 November 2017.

More than 1400 staff members from several locations - Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE), Joint Force Command Brunssum (JFC Brunssum), Allied Land Command (LANDCOM), Allied Maritime Command (MARCOM), Allied Air Command (AIRCOM) and NATO Special Operation Forces - participated.

Major General Walter Huhn, Deputy Chief of Staff CIS and Cyber Defence at NATO's Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE) and Commander of the NATO Communication and Information Systems Group, praised the Agency for its support.

"On behalf of Allied Command Operations, I'd like to publicly thank and recognize the Agency for its outstanding work in support of Trident Javelin," he noted. "This was a formidable challenge with a significant network and huge number of users to support; the great work is an example of outstanding teamwork and NATO at its finest."

An Allied Command Transformation (ACT)-sponsored event, TRJN17 is a Command Post/Computer-Assisted Exercise (CPX/CAX) aimed at expanding NATO's command and control interoperability to conduct large scale joint warfare in a complex, multinational environment.

The exercise was built upon a fictitious Article 5 Collective Defence scenario, where an attack on one Ally triggers a response from all 29 NATO Nations.

The scenario saw the Norwegian Joint Headquarters (NJHQ) focusing on the interaction between the Norwegian civil government and the NATO Command Structure (NCS), while managing Norwegian Forces during a Transfer of Authority to the Joint Headquarters, JFC Brunssum.

To do so, the NJHQ established Norway's Computer Assisted Exercises (CAX) systems at the training facility in Stavanger, which required the support of CSU Stavanger for the configuration of the simulation feeds from NATO MISSION SECRET CAX to Norway CAX.

The exercise's unprecedented scale very much tested the limits of the CSU's capabilities, and its successful completion was possible thanks to the unit's remarkable team effort and flexibility.

The exercise was executed within existing NATO CIS infrastructure, which offered a venue for achieving compliance with Federated Mission Networking (FMN) Spiral 1 specification – testing the ability of Nations with different networks to work together across domains.

Cross domain access from NATO SECRET to MISSION SECRET domain was granted by the Mission Information Room (MIR) and its Information Exchange Gateways in Mons, Belgium.

Local Event Support Desks were also established, and proved essential in providing great customer support in a timely manner.

The Agency's staff excellently managed close to 600 incidents and more than 400 change requests in support of the exercise.

All participating Commands expressed appreciation for the CSU's knowledge, professionalism and timely response throughout Trident Javelin.