From 20 - 24 April, Norway hosted the annual Combined Federated Battle Laboratories Network (CFBLNet) Management Meeting at the military base at Jørstadmoen.
The five day meeting was opened by COL Stikbakke, Deputy Commander and Chief of Staff of the Competency and Transformation Centre at Norwegian Cyber Force, with follow-on addresses from the CFBLNet Executive Group LTC Jacqueline Guillory (Chair), LTC Brenda Sharp (Combined Communications Electronics Board) and the NCI Agency's Chief of Independent Verification and Validation, Mr Brian Christiansen.
The CFBLNet Secretariat – led by Ms Angela Smith, Division Chief, Multinational Information Sharing at the Defense Information Systems Agency – provided outstanding execution and coordination support to the policy and decision authority, and to the mission partners. The consecutive sessions included presentations and working group meetings by the members of the federation. The federation also welcomed the attendance of Switzerland, the newest CFBLNet mission partner.
The meeting addressed several major topics including the implementation of the latest CFBLNet strategic plan, infrastructure change management, executed, ongoing and incoming initiatives, increased utilization and reuse of CFBLNet enclaves assets, and the CFBLNet Publication 1 version 8 review.
During the meeting, NATO proudly announced the release of the CFBLNet video, which was produced by the NCI Agency Creative Media Centre and highlights the unique coalition network infrastructure capability and several customer successes.
NATO was represented by:
• Mr Brian Christiansen (Representative CFBLNet Executive Group);
• Mr Edgar Harmsen (CFBLNet Lead Representative, Initiative and Information Management Workgroup Representative);
• Mr Syvert Maesel (CFBLNet Network Workgroup Representative);
• Mr Frederic Jordan (CFBLNet Security Workgroup Representative)
• Mr Jan-Willem Smaal (CFBLNet Network group)
The General Manager of the NCI Agency, Mr Koen Gijsbers, is the NATO Representative on the CFBLNet Senior Steering Group.
In addition to the meeting, the latest annual CFBLNet communique 2015 was published. The communique provides an overview of the recent and future CFBLNet activities.
Background
The CFBLNet is a multinational, research, development, training, trials and assessment infrastructure for command, control, communications, computers, intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance (C4ISR) based on a multinational global IP backbone network with managed network enclaves on top in support of initiatives. Network infrastructure reuse for multiple multinational and concurrent initiatives is a key element for the CFBLNet mission partners.
CFBLNet operates as a true federation – no single nation owns the CFBLNet. Each member is responsible for the provisioning and operation of its own sites and systems. CFBLNet fulfils the need for persistent joint multinational and cost effective infrastructure. The capability allows for various partnerships; Combined Communications Electronics Board (CCEB), NATO, bilateral, and multilateral.
CFBLNet was established in 2001 and is continuously improving its services to provide the best and most cost effective federated network infrastructure in support of its mission. Currently it consists of 35 mission partners: all 28 NATO Nations and Austria, Australia, Finland, New Zealand, Sweden, Switzerland and the NATO organization. CFBLNet is open through sponsorship to additional partner nations, international organizations, industry, and academia. The CFBLNet Management Meeting is facilitated by the Secretariat, and hosted by a CFBLNet Mission Partner.
The CFBLNet core node for European nations, NATO Nations and NATO organizations is managed by the NCI Agency Independent Verification and Validation Service Line.
For more information, visit the CFBLNet website or contact the NATO CFBLNet lead Representative: Mr Edgar Harmsen, Edgar.Harmsen@ncia.nato.int.