CWIX: Improving the Alliance through Interoperability

Interoperability, or the ability for multinational units to act together, is the foundation for all NATO operations. The Coalition Warrior Interoperability eXploration, eXperimentation, eXamination, eXercise (CWIX) is an annual event that allows NATO and Partner Nations to test, verify and improve it.

NATO needs modern and connected forces; CWIX supports nations to deliver ‘Day Zero’ deployability, sustainability and interoperability by continually improving the way NATO and Partner Nations operate together to keep our nations safe.

During CWIX 2016, from June 13th to June 30th, nearly 900 specialists representing 77 commands from 21 NATO and Partner Nations will deploy and test communications and information systems (CIS) capabilities to the Joint Force Training Centre (JFTC) in Bydgoszcz, Poland. They will perform over 10,000 technical tests to improve the interoperability, resilience and readiness of more than 200 NATO and Partner CIS capabilities.

Albania, Belgium, Estonia, Spain, Lithuania, Australia and New Zealand will ‘Observe’ CWIX 2016 before making their decision to participate in 2017; Ukraine and the European Union Military Staff will be formally represented for the first time; the NATO Command Structure, NATO Agencies and Organisations will participate to improve interoperability between NATO functional services and nationally deployed CIS.

The ‘X’s of CWIX are:

• CWIX provides scientists with a venue to eXplore emerging standards;
• Engineers use CWIX to eXperiment and resolve interoperability issues;
• Technical testers eXamine interoperability between capabilities to improve resilience;
• Users eXercise to de-risk interoperability and improve readiness.

By providing an environment that allows nations to undertake challenging technical tests, CWIX overcomes many of the interoperability issues that would otherwise be faced during deployments. It also improves the resilience and agility needed for the Readiness Action Plan (RAP) by de-risking networks and systems before nations prepare for exercises or operations.

The importance of CWIX to Nations is multi-faceted:

• CWIX provide nations with a planned programme of technical testing activities for improving interoperability in support of strategic objectives;
• CWIX considers interoperability improvements throughout the CIS capability development life-cycle from early experimentation to fully fielded systems;
• In line with the Connected Forces Initiative (CFI), CWIX allows nations to experiment, innovate and collaborate; achieving novel solutions to reduce CIS development time and cost;
• CWIX lets nations test and confirm Federated Mission Networking (FMN) readiness against specifications: FMN underpins the interoperability, resilience and agility of CIS, and a FMN-ready infrastructure allows nations to ‘plug and play’ with NATO and Partner Nations CIS capabilities;
• Last but not least, robust standards (STANAGS) are the ‘backbone’ of interoperability: CWIX continually examines their relevance and proposes improvements.

Source: NATO

By

L. J. De Rothschild      

Senior Editor