NATO PWG & NATO FMSC - Brussels

The 31st meeting of the Policy working group (NATO PWG) was held on 4-5 July at the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) headquarters in Brussels, chaired by Germany.

The 21st meeting of the frequency management sub-committee (NATO FMSC) was in turn held on 6-7 July, chaired by Germany with Poland as co-chair.

The PWG continued the work preparing for the World Radiocommunications Conference (WRC07). Item 1.13 was particularly debated, about which the military community fears that said conference may make a decision to allocate additional spectrum in the HF (high frequency) bands for broadcasting service, which could negatively affect military requirements in that frequency range with respect to fixed and mobile service usage.

The PWG drafted a text for consideration by the administrations which opposes the intended allocation, should the tangible results of the studies carried out by the Radiocommunication Sector of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU-R) not be available by the conference date. The PWG expressed its concern over some of the items included in the CEPT preliminary position in the brief for this WRC07 theme topic.

The next NATO PWG meeting is scheduled for 13-14 February 2006.

NATO FMSC is planning to carry out a study on the possibility of interference between the GLONASS system and the JTIDS-MIDS system.

The FMSC chairman reported that the EJCCG (European JTIDS/ MIDS Cross-Border Co-ordination Group) had been set up to satisfy requests from various countries, given the breaking up of the SHAPE cell, which will hence only be responsible for planning networks for Alliance operations.

NATO FMSC will inform the North Atlantic Council of the need to ensure that the administrations guarantee military use of the 225-400 MHz band in compliance with applicable recommendations of the Electronic Communications Committee (ECC), decisions of the European Union and orientations of the NATO Joint Frequency Agreement (NJFA ? 2002 edition).

Portugal was represented at these meetings by the Portuguese Air Force and the Autoridade Nacional de Comunicações (ANACOM).

The next NATO FMSC meeting will be held at NATO headquarters on 15-16 February 2006.