The ninth meeting of NATO’s Civil Consultation, Command and Control Board/Spectrum Capability Panel 3 working group (C3B CaP 3) took place last 11 March at NATO headquarters in Brussels. The meeting was chaired by Richard Barfoot from C3 Staff (NATO C3S) and Stephen Jones from the Office of Communications (Ofcom). Portugal was represented by the Armed Forces General Staff and ANACOM.
Regarding the Atlantic Alliance’s capacities, the group aims to: ensure that enough spectrum resources are available so that NATO military forces have sufficient access to spectrum to carry out their mission; harmonise military use of radio frequencies among NATO allies; and cooperate with countries of the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council (EAPC)/Partnership for Peace (PfP) with the goal of achieving identical radio spectrum use.
The following stand out among matters dealt with at the ninth C3B CaP 3 meeting:
- Preparation of the 2015 World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC-15) – NATO’s military positions on each upcoming WRC-15 agenda item were reviewed and debated. An additional section was also added, concerning global flight tracking (GFT). The final document will be placed under silence procedure; if the silence is not broken it will be submitted to the C3B, Military Committee (MC) and North Atlantic Council (NAC) for approval;
- Revision of the NATO Joint Frequency Agreement (NJFA) – Following the preceding meeting of CaP 3 in civilian/military session, which reviewed the proposed NJFA submitted to the plenary meeting, that agreement was placed under silence procedure. Comments made during the silence period were ‘partly’ taken into account; the document was approved with a view to it being considered/implemented “as far as possible” by the nations. The NJFA’s future impact on various relevant documents in this area (procedures, spectrum policy) will now be analysed by the Spectrum Analysis Capability Team (CaT SPA).
The CaP 3 group’s next meeting in civilian/military session is planned for March/April 2016. Meanwhile, during WRC-15 (2-27 November 2015 in Geneva), NATO coordination meetings will be held to follow the Conference’s progress and (re)discuss positions, if necessary.
