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Summary of Meeting 31 ocober 2007 at NATO C2CoE in Ede:

1. On 31 October 2007, Chapter The Hague organized its ICT Matinee at the NATO Command & Control Centre of Excellence (C²CoE), located in Ede, the Netherlands. Chapter Vice-President, Air Commodore RNLAF (rtd) Gerrit Schoonderbeek welcomed the participants and apologized for the absence of Chapter President Naval Commodore RNLN Willem Voogt.

2. Commodore Schoonderbeek reminded the audience that the Annual Dinner Meeting, that will be held on 12 December 2007 at the “Kasteel Oud Wassenaar” will be open only to Chapter members. Then he introduced Colonel RNLA Geerlof Kanis, the Director of the NATO C²CoE, who briefly presented his organization, that - as he explained - is mainly involved in the support of C² and not as much with C² itself.

3. The next speaker, Lieutenant-Colonel (GEA) Dieter Völkel, the Deputy Director of the NATO C²CoE briefed the audience on 3 main topics:

a. Mission, Vision and History of the NATO C²CoE. Col Völkel defined C² as: “The exercise of authority and direction by a properly designated Commander over assigned forces in the accomplishment of a mission”. He then recalled the Mission of the C²CoE: “to support Supreme Allied Command Transformation (SACT) in its efforts to transform NATO by providing subject matter expertise on all aspects of the C² process. By doing so, the NATO C²CoE is to become a principle source of C² expertise, supporting the transformation of NATO and it will cover all aspects of the C² process (e.g. doctrine, organization, training and education, leadership, systems, personnel and facilities) with a focus on the operational and tactical levels. The Netherlands, as the Framework Nation, has established the national nucleus and initial capability in 2006 and on 14 June 2007 the MOU was signed at NATO HQ in Brussels by 7 nations (Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, the Slovak Republic, Spain and Turkey) and the ACT. The United States confirmed that they soon will join the NATO C²CoE. The Centre now consists of a multinational manning of 25 people.

b. Influence of the C²CoE on C². The NATO C²CoE is an ideal platform to exchange information and knowledge in order to improve C² interoperability. It will act as a catalyst for nations and NATO transformation by building a Networking and Information Infrastructure (NII) with multidimensional integration (knowledge, social and technical).

c. The Program-of-Work (POW) for 2008. The main priority for the NATO C²CoE is the NATO NEC (Network Enabled Capabilities) NRF (NATO Response Forces) Assessment, followed by National C² issues as priority 2 and the CWID 2008 (Coalition Warrior Interoperability Demonstration) as priority 3.

4. Colonel Völkel’s presentation was followed by Lieutenant-Colonel (RNLA) Jaap de Feiter, Head of Analysis and Concepts of the NATO C²CoE. Col de Freiter briefed the participants on the NATO NEC Assessment of the NRF and explained that the NRF is used as a platform for assessment of the NATO Conceptual Framework. He mentioned the NCOIC (Network Centric Operational Industrial Consortium) which is also active in the field of improving interoperability. The NCOIC developed the NATO Network Centric Analysis Tool (NCAT) that might be helpful in the NNEC Assessment process of the NRF. Col de Freiter also made the remark that networking not only is of importance in the field of Doctrine, Organization and Facilities, but also in Training and Material (“enablers”) as well as in Leadership/Education and Personnel/Culture (“enforcers”).

5. After these three presentations, all speakers answered questions that were raised by the audience. Then Air Commodore Schoonderbeek asked Commander RNLN Auke Kampen to step forward and to be recognized as a new life-time member of Afcea. Commodore Schoonderbeek then thanked the NATO C²CoE for hosting Chapter the Hague and handed tokens of appreciation to the three speakers.

6. The ICT Matinee was concluded with the traditional luncheon.
Definition of used acronyms:

ICT

 =

Information and Communications Technology

NATO

 =

North Atlantic Treaty Organization

 =

Command & Control

CoE

 =

Centre of Excellence

RNLAF

 =

Royal Netherlands Air Force

rtd

 =

Retired

RNLN

 =

Royal Netherlands Navy

GEA

 =

German Army

(S)ACT

 =

(Supreme) Allied Command Transformation

MOU

 =

Memorandum of Understanding

HQ

 =

Head Quarters

NII

 =

Networking and Information Infrastructure

POW

 =

Program of Work

NEC

 =

Network Enabled Capabilities

NRF

 =

NATO Response Forces

CWID

 =

Coalition Warrior Interoperability Demonstration

RNLA

 =

Royal Netherlands Army

NCOIC

 =

Network Centric Operational Industrial Consortium

NCAT

 =

Network Centric Analysis Tool


Speakers:

 

Name

Position

Rank

Branch of Service

Organization

Geerlof Kanis

Director

Colonel

RNLA

NATO C²CoE

Dieter Völkel

Deputy Director

Lieutenant-Colonel

GEA

NATO C²CoE

Jaap de Feiter

Head of Analysis and Concepts

Lieutenant-Colonel

RNLA

NATO C²CoE

Photograph #1:

 

Chapter Vice-President, Air Commodore RNLAF Gerrit Schoonderbeek,  hands a token of Appreciation to Colonel RNLA Geerlof Kanis, the Director of the NATO C²CoE for hosting the Chapter’s ICT Matinee

 

Position

Full Name

Rank

Branch of Service

Organization

Left

Geerlof Kanis

Colonel

RNLA

NATO C²CoE

Right

Gerrit Schoonderbeek

Air Commodore

RNLAF

Chapter Vice-President


Photograph #2:

 

Lieutenant-Colonel GEA Dieter Völkel, the Deputy Director of the NATO C²CoE, receives a Certificate-of-Appreciation from Chapter Vice-President, Air Commodore RNLAF Gerrit Schoonderbeek

 

Position

Full Name

Rank

Branch of Service

Organization

Left

Dieter Völkel

Lieutenant-Colonel

GEA

NATO C²CoE

Right

Gerrit Schoonderbeek

Air Commodore

RNLAF

Chapter Vice-President

Photograph #3:

 

Lieutenant-Colonel RNLA Jaap de Feiter, Head of Analysis and Concepts of the NATO C²CoE is handed a token of Appreciation for his presentation by Chapter Vice-President, Air Commodore RNLAF Gerrit Schoonderbeek

 

Position

Full Name

Rank

Branch of Service

Organization

Left

Jaap de Feiter

Lieutenant-Colonel

RNLA

NATO C²CoE

Right

Gerrit Schoonderbeek

Air Commodore

RNLAF

Chapter Vice-President

 

Photograph #4:

Chapter Vice-President, Air Commodore RNLAF Gerrit Schoonderbeek, congratulates Commander RNLN Auke Kampen with his life-time membership of Afcea and hands him the accompanying document

 

Position

Full Name

Rank

Branch of Service

Organization

Left

Gerrit Schoonderbeek

Air Commodore

RNLAF

Chapter Vice-President

Right

Auke Kampen

Commander

RNLN

RNLN