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Jun 21 2024

NCIA supports NATO's largest-ever interoperability exercise

CWIX is NATO's premier annual interoperability exercise designed to continuously improve interoperability within communication and information systems (CIS). For 25 years, CWIX has continuously driven interoperability forward while adapting to meet the Alliance's needs amidst shifts in the global security landscape and advancements in technology.

CWIX focuses on testing NATO and national CIS capabilities to meet the interoperability requirements of Allied and Partner Nations. In practical terms, CWIX allows NATO, Allies and Partners to experiment, test, and de-risk their deployable systems in a controlled environment. Ultimately, the exercise improves the exchanges of information to enhance critical decision-making, giving NATO commanders and troops a persistent operational edge.

"CWIX 24 demonstrates a remarkable reflection of efficient and effective multinational collaboration. Once again, NCIA rose to the challenge," states Bogdan Stachnik, Plans and Project Event Engineer at NCIA CIS Support Unit Bydgoszcz. NCIA provided essential support throughout the planning and execution phases, with more than 150 engineers contributing to the success of the exercise. NCIA infrastructure, systems and engineers were essential for almost every objective tackled during execution. NCIA provided the major CIS assets necessary for the exercise, including a wide range of engineering expertise from networking to software engineering, and operational analysis.

NCIA Command and Control (C2) systems present at CWIX range from prototypes and experimental capabilities to operational systems, ensuring that participating nations are interoperable with current and future solutions. Furthermore, NCIA enabled the testing which takes place during CWIX 24 with the provision of interoperability testing tools and expertise for the nations. The exercise served as a platform for experimenting and validating future Federated Mission Networking (FMN) specifications. The Agency provided support to nations for assurance, verification and validation of more than 200 current FMN specifications and exercise systems, ensuring mission networks are adaptable for future joint and combined operations.

"CWIX is the perfect opportunity for NCIA to ensure that our systems are interoperable with a wide range of NATO Nations and Partners, ensuring they are able to operate together in any mission or exercise," states Alberto Perez Veiga, Senior Project Manager. It is extremely important for us to leverage the expertise present to ensure all systems are mission-ready."

Interoperability and readiness – two of the CWIX core pillars – are crucial to the success of the Alliance as they allow national forces to deploy together, be effective from the very start of an operation and communicate effectively as one multi domain-enabled fighting force. The seamless exchange of information across operational domains will accelerate commanders' decision-making.

"CWIX 24 marks the 25^th anniversary of the exercise and the NCIA team is providing more services than ever before. We are the second largest contingent of personnel with more than 100 personnel assisting the nations in their testing," explained Major Joshua Winsett, Exercise Planner for the NCIA Operations and Exercise team. "The Alliance has never been more focused on achieving interoperability and meeting multi domain operations interoperability targets."