Laying the Foundation for Coalition Interoperability through NATO's C3 Technical Architecture

摘要

Current projections indicate that in the future, the ability to share information between military systems will ultimately determine whether or not a mission will be a success or a failure. Based on the probability that conflicts will continue to occur involving allied command structures that utilize diverse information systems, it has been surmised that information interoperability will be the crucial factor for success when conducting future combined and joint military operations. This paper describes an architectural approach that lays the structural foundation necessary to attain interoperability between diverse C3 systems, and it provides the rationale as to why this approach has been proposed for use throughout NATO. Interoperability has long been an elusive and sought-after goal, especially within the realm of coalition information systems. A well-defined architectural approach can lay the structural foundation necessary to attain interoperability for diverse military information systems in the future. When all five volumes of the NATO C3 Technical Architecture (NC3TA) are finalized, it is anticipated that the structural foundation will be in place for the building of future coalition systems for years to come.