New Command and Control Challenges Seminar

The C2 seminar was held in the facilities of Hotel Mercure in Bratislava, Slovakia, from 19th to 21th of March 2013. As many different C2 challenges were ad-dressed, this C2 seminar was a great success.

Seminar presentations covered a wide variety of topics and issues related to current C2 challenges, including introduction of the theory of Network Enabled Capability (NEC) and the development of the new NATO NEC crite-ria, our experiences from NRF assessments and recent NATO operations (OUP, ISAF, Ocean Shield), the impact of Comprehensive Approach (CA) and Information Management (IM) on C2, the new NATO Command Structure and NATO Force Structure, critical as-pects of C2 such as cyber security, social media as well as the C2 way ahead.

For a follow-on seminar the participants are mostly interested in human factors and aspects in C2, Future Mission Network (FMN), C2 in NNEC and Comprehensive Approach. For consideration there are other possible topics such as: the impact of the financial crisis on C2/NNEC, new C2 systems currently in development, future challenges and solutions for C2.

The audience underlined that this seminar provided an excellent overview on the development of C2 from a different perspective and situational awareness on C2 challenges NATO is facing. It was also a great opportunity to learn about C2, improving the military knowledge and background as staff officers. The diverse background of participants provided interesting insights and a good discussion forum. Moreover, the seminar was a great opportunity for networking, exchange of C2 ideas and views, and to enlarge the C2 community.

Some attendees suggested that this seminar should be a part of an educational program for all personnel before their deployment to NCS or EU structure.