The NCI Agency plays a key role in supporting Ukraine as the Executing Agent for the NATO Command, Control, Communications and Computers (C4) Trust Fund, which is led by Canada, Germany and United Kingdom. The objective of the C4 Trust Fund is to help Ukraine modernize its C4 structures and capabilities, and facilitate their interoperability with NATO, thereby contributing to NATO-led exercises and operations, and enhancing Ukraine's ability to provide for its own security.
On 25 June 2015, the Allied Ministers expressed their continuous support for Ukraine during a meeting on the NATO-Ukraine Commission (NUC) at the NATO Defence Ministerial.
The UK Defence Secretary, Mr Michael Fallon, and NATO's Secretary General, Mr Jens Stoltenberg, both referenced the launch of two initial projects during the NUC meeting.
"As one of the lead nations administering the Trust Fund, I welcome its launch and the opportunity for the UK and NATO to provide further support to Ukraine. The Fund will assist the Ukrainian government in modernizing its vital C4 capabilities, and enhance its ability to provide for its own security and contribute to NATO-led exercises and operations. These are significant projects which demonstrate both the UK's and NATO's commitment to supporting Ukraine, and \developing its defensive capabilities in the immediate and longer term," said UK Secretary of State for Defence Michael Fallon.
"The five NATO trust funds are up and running. And we are making real progress. In recent days, we have launched projects on secure communications and regional airspace security. These are key areas," declared NATO's Secretary General, Jens Stoltenberg.
Tactical Communications Support
The Tactical Communications Support Project focuses on addressing critical shortfalls for units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, with a view to improving their near-term efficiency and security, while supporting the long-term goal of interoperability with NATO. The main objective is to identify surplus assets in NATO and NATO Nations that are suitable for use by Ukraine, potentially augmented with specific new acquisitions to provide a coherent and complete capability, in coordination with national bilateral projects. The initial phase of the project will focus on the identification and provision of available assets from NATO storage to ensure interim capability is available while the wider stocktaking is taking place.
Regional Airspace Security Programme (RASP)
The purpose of the Regional Airspace Security Programme (RASP) is to provide a cross-border coordination capability to Ukraine for the handling of air security incidents, and to promote regional airspace cooperation and improve internal civil/military coordination.
RASP will connect with neighbouring countries to acquire and provide early and real-time notification about airspace threats, security incidents and suspicious aircraft, through the sharing of air pictures, direct voice coordination and joint procedures.
The first activity within this program will be RASP Pathfinder Project, a "quick win" pilot project in which a system will be interfaced with Ukrainian sensors and an existing network connecting Norway, Poland and Turkey. This project will be completed with a test and demonstration. The design of these high visibility "quick win" projects was made possible thanks to the leadership of the Lead Nations for the Trust fund, and efforts by the Defence Investment Division of NATO Headquarters and the NCI Agency.
Please click here for more information on NATO Practical Support to Ukraine.
Please click here for the Press Statement on the NATO-Ukraine Commission Meeting.