As NATO's technology and cyber leader, the NATO Communications and Information (NCI) Agency supports quite a few exercises each year.
Most recently, the Agency played a key role in the Coalition Warrior Interoperability Exercise (CWIX), which ran from 10 to 27 June 2019. The exercise is designed to test and improve interoperability between NATO and national C4ISR (Command, Control, Communications, Computer, Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance) systems.
The Agency delivered NATO's C4ISR capabilities to the exercise and provided a support backbone for the event. The Agency also conducted technical tests of fielded, developmental and experimental systems in the context of a coalition scenario.
More than 1,500 people from across the Alliance worked together to make CWIX happen. Around 60 of those were subject matter experts from the Agency. The Agency's Communications and Information Systems Support Unit in Bydgoszcz, Poland, also supported the execution of the exercise.
"The expertise and customer-oriented attitude demonstrated by the NCI Agency's CSU staff was clearly recognized by all organizers and participants alike," said Fulvio Postogna, NATO Joint Force Training Centre Deputy CWIX Officer of Primary Responsibility, in a note of appreciation to the Agency. "All issues and tickets were resolved in a timely fashion and no customer was sent away without answers."
Allied Command Transformation (ACT) led and managed the exercise. The Agency delivered 33 capabilities and systems that were critical to the exercise, such as joint chat, and NATO-wide integrated command and control software for air operations.
"This was possibly the best CWIX yet," Postogna said.