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06 3 2019

Latina school celebrates 60 years of NATO training

In an official ceremony in June, this remarkable institution celebrated 60 years of successful training, and passed the torch to the new NATO Communications and Information (NCI) Academy, which will open this autumn.

"Over the past 60 years, this school has done its job. It trained generations of experts and technicians to help keep the peace, win the Cold War, find and track down terrorists, and keep our networks stable, free of malware and running in the face of constant cyber-attacks," said Kevin J Scheid, General Manager of the NATO Communications and Information (NCI) Agency.

The NCISS has become an integral component of the NCI Agency, as part of its Education and Training Service Line. The Agency is responsible for acquiring and supporting NATO systems, and providing training to operate them.

"We are here to support NATO and those 60 years have truly been 60 years of service to NATO," said Commandant Paulo Nunes, who is responsible for the school's day-to-day running.

Since the beginning, the school has put its customers first. Its clients come primarily from NATO's command structure – around 85 percent of its students are military personnel.

About half of the students are involved in NATO's operations and theatre support. And 20 percent of its students will be or are already assigned to a NATO operation or a NATO mission.

"This is a huge responsibility for the school," said Commandant Nunes. "If we fail our mission, NATO will be impaired in providing security and accomplishing its missions. We feel that we are very much linked to NATO's operational side."

The history of the Latina school's courses reflects also the history of technology, from radio communications in the school's early days, to applications and cloud computing today. Throughout the years, the school has changed and adapted to NATO's needs.

Important technological discoveries in the 1990s changed the way NATO personnel communicated. People placed more and more emphasis on online communications, so the demand for training in software engineering and programming increased dramatically.

"The school was built in 1959, originally as a tropospheric scatter training entity," said LTC Oliver Geermann, the school's Chief of Staff. "I'm very proud that the school is always on top of technology.

Every year, the NCI Agency acquires 500 million EUR in new equipment that demands extensive training.
But some students who attend the school arrive without prior experience with NATO systems, Geermann said.

"When those students arrive at NATO positions, they must learn what they have to provide on the field," Geermann said. "First they are trained as users, then as administrators and finally as coordinators to bring knowledge to the field."

The NATO Communication and Information Systems Group (NCISG) has been the biggest customer of the school in Latina, with around 1,200 of its personnel trained there every year.