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May 31 2024

NCIA participates in Vauban Sessions 2024

On 29 and 30 May 2024, the NATO Communications and Information Agency (NCIA) Chief of Staff Major General Hans Folmer, participated in the Vauban Sessions 2024, in Lille, France.

The theme for this year's Vauban Sessions was 'command in the era of high intensity: Vision 2030.' The event was opened by a welcome address from General Jean-Paul Palomeros, former NATO Supreme Allied Commander for Transformation and former Chief of Staff of the French Air Force and an inductor keynote speech by Lieutenant General Emmanuel Gaulin, Commander of the Rapid Reaction Corps France.

Major General Folmer participated in the first session of the first day, titled 'Rethinking operational planning for high-intensity' alongside fellow NATO senior officials. The debate focused on lessons learned from current conflicts for the planning of high-intensity coalition operations, how operational planning methods can be adapted to best anticipate real-time developments in combat and solutions to speed up projection, deployment and implementation processes.

"Cyberspace is a unique domain with an ever-evolving nature of threats. In order to address our changing security environment, we need to transform," explained Major General Folmer during the session. "NCIA is currently implementing a gradual transition to commercial cloud computing across NATO to support mission-essential connectivity during operations and shorter decision-making loops for a better anticipation of real-time operational developments."

The Vauban Sessions are an initiative of the Rapid Reaction Corps France and Forward Global. The aim of the annual event is to bring together representatives of military forces from across the Alliance and beyond to exchange lessons learned and best practices in relation to digital transformation of NATO and National Armed Forces.

This year's Vauban Sessions also included discussions on command and control structures, aligning capability development, innovation and operational needs, and digital technology challenges and constraints for training and education.