On 30 May 2024, NATO Intelligence Surveillance and Reconnaissance Force (NISRF) Commander, Brigadier General Andrew Clark, visited the NATO Communications and Information Agency's (NCIA) facilities in The Hague, Netherlands, to discuss current cooperation in the Joint Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (JISR) domain.
During the visit, the Commander was briefed by NCIA experts on a wide range of topics covering JISR, counter drones, electronic warfare, the Alliance Persistent Surveillance from Space (APSS) programme, among others. Further to the briefings, Brigadier General Clark met with the NCIA General Manager Ludwig Decamps and NCIA senior officials, Chief Operating Officer Wiebe Nauta and Chief JISR Matt Roper, to discuss current support to the Force, as well as ongoing and upcoming projects.
The visit finalized with a walk-through tour to the NCIA Command and Control lab and the Integrated Air Missile Defence lab.
NATO's ISR Force has become increasingly important in generating intelligence data for the Alliance. Their Alliance Ground Surveillance (AGS) fleet of five RQ-4D "Phoenix" unmanned aerial vehicles enables NATO to perform persistent surveillance over wide areas from high-altitude long-endurance aircraft. In September 2023, the force was renamed from NATO Alliance Ground Surveillance Force to NATO Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Force.
NCIA is responsible for many of the systems and services required to operate the five RQ-4D remotely piloted aircraft. NCIA supports ISR data-collection processes, development and provision of ISR tools, the execution and accreditation of the NISRF infrastructure as well as integrating the NATO infrastructure with the AGS infrastructure. Additional support covers the relocation of communication and information systems infrastructure for the NISRF, following its relocation into its new Headquarters building.