On the Federation of Information in Coalition Operations: Building Single Information Domains Out of Multiple Security Domains

The NATO Network-Enabled Capabilities (NNEC) concept aims to facilitate efficient information sharing in NATO operations. In 2012, a NNEC assessment of a NATO Response Force (NRF) rotation during Exercise Steadfast Cobalt (SFCT) 2012 was performed. The outcome of the assessment showed a number of constraints that prevent seamless information sharing and exploitation across the various mission partners. Two issues were identified as critical to enable information sharing in NRF: (a) the need to implement a more strict approach to Information Management, along a proper set of processes and tools, and (b) the requirement to enable automatic or semi-automatic transfer of information between different security domains, therefore enabling a single information domain where partners can access and share the vast majority of mission information. The solution should ideally also enable information sharing with Non-Traditional Partners (NTPs) in compliance with the NATO Comprehensive Approach to operations [1]. This paper summarizes the findings of the NNEC assessment performed during 2012 Steadfast Cobalt NRF exercise, and the solution proposed to resolve the identified information management and information sharing constraints. The proposed solution, in line with NNEC recommendations for the Future Mission Network (FMN) concept is based on an information clearinghouse function and a release gateway. The clearinghouse maintains a tightly configuration-controlled catalog of mission relevant information, to ensure users easily find and access the latest approved version of any information product. In addition, the clearinghouse provides support to a release authority and to a release gateway, which allow semi-automatic transfer of releasable products between different security domains. The combination of the three elements creates the perception of a single information domain. The paper describes the impact of the solution on information sharing by repeating the NNEC assessment, and provides a number of recommendations on how to achieve those benefits in current or future NATO operations.