A Standards-Based Common Operational Environment

Abstract

NATO as an international organization consists of representatives from 19 nations and has to satisfy the political, operational and technical requirements of all members. In addition to the development of specific NATO information systems, it has to consider and support means for interoperability with national systems. Taking into account the life-cycle-cost aspects, it becomes clear that a standardization policy must consider the cost-effective maintenance, upgrade and replacement of system components and their interfaces. Standardization of NATO specific interfaces is a well-established process, which results in ‘Standardization Agreements’ (STANAGs). Those are specifications of proprietary standards or of adaptations of international (e.g. ITU, ISO) standards. STANAGs have two major disadvantages: First, the process to develop a new or to modify an existing standard is lengthy; the process to get the specification ratified by the relevant nations is even longer. This can result in STANAGs, which do not reflect the state-of-the-art of standards. Second, as STANAGs often specify standards that are different from international or commercial standards, there is very little market and product support. This leads naturally to increased development and procurement costs. In military terms a Command, Control and Information System (CCIS) is the equivalent to a Management Support and Information System (MSS/MIS) in the commercial domain.