France and NATO C3 Agency to develop C4ISR cooperation

On 27 January, the General Manager of the NATO C3 Agency (NC3A) visited Paris to discuss cooperation on command and control, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance with senior defence officials. The visit was an important stepping stone to the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding that will enable a more efficient relation between France and the NC3A on C4ISR issues.

With the current financial pressure, the Alliance is looking to leverage the benefits of multinational approaches to capability development. This includes intensified cooperation with NATO Nations on a comprehensive approach to C4ISR issues.

“Our goal is a change of paradigm,” said NC3A General Manager Georges D’Hollander, “Previously, Nations developed national capabilities and then paid a second time to make them interoperable. Today, all Nations only want to pay once and have systems that are ‘born interoperable’. France has a key role to play in this regard while contributing with its C4ISR roadmap in the overall success of this comprehensive approach.”

French authorities underlined that, considering France being now a full member of NATO and recognizing that interoperability is a “must have” in current and future operations, the design, realization and testing of national and multinational C4ISR systems have to be more and more coherent. Key issues discussed included interoperability, coherent capability development, particularly between long-term capability development and urgent operational requirements, cost-effective reuse of multinational and national capabilities, secure system architectures, and collaborative and open-source capability development.

During the visit, Mr. D’hollander was first welcomed by General Jean-Pierre Devaux, the Director for Strategy in DGA (French Armament Directorate) and met during the morning with the NC3Board principals, General Lapprend from the Joint Staff and Colonel Marc Sirven. The visit included also during the afternoon a meeting with the director of DGSIC, Admiral Pénillard.

Source: NC3A