NATO headquarters in Brussels hosted last 18-19 June the seventh meeting of the NATO Civil Consultation, Command and Control Board/Spectrum Capability Panel 3 (C3B CaP 3) working group. The meeting was co-chaired by Rick Barfoot of C3 Staff (NATO C3S) and Stephen Jones of the Office of Communications (OFCOM). Portugal participated via representatives from the Armed Forces General Staff and ANACOM.
In the framework of the Atlantic alliance’s defence capabilities, the group’s aim is to provide enough spectrum resources to ensure that NATO military forces have sufficient access to spectrum to achieve their mission; to harmonise military use of radio frequencies among NATO allies; and to cooperate with the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council (EAPC)/Partnership for Peace (PfP) countries with the goal of using radio spectrum identically.
The following subjects were discussed at C3B CaP 3’s seventh meeting, among others:
- new revision and presentation of NATO’s preliminary military positions for the upcoming 2015 World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC-15), developed in military session – civilian members provided their opinions during the meeting;
- new presentation in civilian/military session of revised grounds that should direct revision of tables in the NATO Joint Frequency Agreement (NJFA), which date to 2002. The rough draft presented was prepared and revised in military session - the new classifications and applicability for each of the three proposed classes is stable. Agreement was consequently reached to formally send the document to the nations so that by the end of August 2014 they can study it and send in comments for later consideration;
- regarding the table per se (now with the new proposed classification and respective justification), it was presented to C3B CaP 3 for the first time at this seventh meeting in civilian/military session. It was considered necessary to give nations time to examine the table's content in detail, so plans were accordingly made to hold an additional session during the eight C3B CaP 3 meeting to share impressions after the issue has matured.
The next meeting of C3B CaP 3 in civilian/military session will be held this coming 22-24 October.
