The eighth meeting of the NATO Civil Consultation, Command and Control Board/Spectrum Capability Panel 3 (C3B CaP 3) working group took place last 22-24 October at NATO headquarters in Brussels. It was co-chaired by Rick Barfoot from C3 Staff (NATO C3S) and Stephen Jones from the Office of Communications (Ofcom). Portugal was represented by the Armed Forces General Staff and ANACOM.
With respect to the Atlantic alliance’s defence capabilities, the group’s mission includes the following: to ensure provision of enough spectrum resources so that NATO military forces have sufficient access to spectrum to fulfil their mission; to harmonise military use of radio frequencies among NATO allies; and to cooperate with the Euro-American Partnership Council (EAPC)/Partnership for Peace (PfP) countries with the goal of achieving identical radio spectrum usage.
The following stand out among matters considered during the eighth meeting of C3B CaP3:
- Preparation of the 2015 World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC-15) - the NATO military positions for each agenda item of the upcoming WRC-15 were once again presented, discussed and reviewed. Those positions are developed in military session and reviewed in civilian/military forum and should be finalised at the ninth meeting of CaP3 in March 2015;
- Revision of the NATO Joint Frequency Agreement (NJFA) - following the preceding meeting of CaP3 in civilian/military session, which reviewed the proposed NJFA presented to the plenary session (especially the introductory part of the definitions/principles), that proposal was sent to the nations for comments by last 12 September. After further discussions in military and then in civilian/military session, agreement was reached on a new version of the NJFA, which will be placed under silent procedure, most likely until late November 2014.
The next meeting of the CaP 3 group in civilian/military session is scheduled for 11-12 March 2015.
