Over 250 military and civilian leaders from all 28 NATO nations, including nearly 100 representatives from Partner nations gathered in Norfolk Virginia on 9 & 10 December to attend the 2015 Chiefs of Transformation Conference, hosted by General Denis Mercier, Supreme Allied Commander Transformation.
The theme of this year's COTC was "Strategic Innovation and Sustained Transformation", with particular focus on the strategic perspectives of NATO leaders on the road to Warsaw, as well as discussions on the changed face of Hybrid Warfare. Keynote addresses were provided, amongst others, by Ambassador Alexander Vershbow, Deputy Secretary General of NATO, and General Mercier, whose welcoming remarks can be found here.
The two-day event facilitated the exchange of ideas on the necessary adaptation and preparedness of the Alliance, as well as the need to look beyond Warsaw and set the ambitions for a resilient NATO, able to respond effectively to a changing security environment. The main take-aways include the importance of enabling federated mission networking; to secure interoperability for nations and partners; to enhance the speed of decision-making; and to prioritize and synchronize across NATO's multinational initiatives to address critical capability shortfalls.
NCI Agency was represented by Dr Velizar Shalamanov, Director of Demand Management, who was invited to share the Agency's views and recommendations on the challenges and opportunities faced in the development of multinational projects, cooperation frameworks and the provision of information sharing platforms.
The COTC represents a unique opportunity for the Agency to contribute to the shaping of NATO military leaders' thinking in the domain of transformation in cooperation with partners. Through its Customer Engagement Plan 2016, the NCI Agency will continue to strengthen its strategic relationship with ACT, for instance through closer cooperation and exchange of ideas in the development of the Allied Reach 2016 Conference, the 2016 Strategic Military Partnership Conference and the next 2016 NCI Agency Chief Information Officers' Conference.
A comprehensive report of the COTC will be produced in early January with a set of recommendations towards the preparation of the Warsaw Summit.