On 19 November 2013, during the C3Board (Principals) Meeting, Industry demonstrated SCIP (Secure Communications Interoperability Protocol) compliant secure voice technologies at the NATO Headquarters.
Under the coordinated guidance of the NATO HQ C3 Staff, the NCI Agency and SACT SEE, Industry provided a demonstration of secure voice and multimedia using SCIP at the NATO HQ. Industry from seven nations were present: Sectra, Transbit, Epicom, Sirrix, Selex ES-Telsy, Tecnobit, Tutus, Tubitak and General Dynamics. The demo was witnessed by NATO representatives from the C3Board, NATO HQ, SHAPE, SACT-SEE, and the NCI Agency.
The event demonstrated to Senior Leadership within the C3 Domain the interoperability of SCIP devices. In addition to the demonstration of SCIP, a federation of TACOMS networks (Sweden, Italy and Spain) was installed to show that SCIP devices can also operate over the TACOMS networks. The demonstrations linked sites located in Spain, Germany, Sweden, Poland, Italy, Turkey and the USA to the NATO HQ. This demonstration proved that different nations and vendors can communicate via the SCIP protocol over trunk networks, the Internet, ISDN and Cellular technologies.
This demonstration also showed the feasibility of integrating two elements of the Future Mission Network (FMN) profile; secure communication services using SCIP operating via a gateway over a federated IP networks based on TACOMS+ interoperability standards.
With the call for increased security and interoperability through Smart Defence and the Connected Forces Initiative, experts across NATO continue to explore capabilities that meet the requirements to transmit secure voice and data over a wide range of networks. The devices demonstrated at this event complied with the SCIP, STANAG 5067. Standardization of the SCIP protocol within NATO allows SCIP-compliant devices from different vendors to interoperate securely, independent of the communications access network, and can provide both NATO and national encryption modes in the same device.
Industry was satisfied with feedback and outcome of the demonstrations and interest demonstrated by the visitors. Visitors were impressed by the fact that the same terminal can be used over different networks, be it Internet, WiFi or over a tactical environment such as TACOMS and interoperate with terminals from other manufacturers over these networks.
The organisers received excellent technical support from NATO HQ, as well as from the nine companies taking part.