READY FOR TODAY – EVOLVING FOR TOMORROW
The ARRC augmented geospatial cell, which added representatives from the Czech Army, Polish Army, NRDC-ITA, NRDC-TUR, MND-SE and the UK’s 42nd
Engineer Regiment (Geospatial).
Having a variety of different countries,
working practises, ranks and experience
levels was a deliberate act in order to
force an effective spirit of collaboration,
which resulted in the harnessing of best
practises from across the Alliance.
be using the same baseline data; this
is a vital ingredient to prevent fratricide
(cognitive or physical).
Prior to deploying on the exercise, all
the participants were sent the same
authorised data. This simple process was
very time consuming.
It put a great deal
of
pressure
on
data-managers
as
they were working
on
compressed
timelines to ensure
that data processing
and husbandry was
correctly achieved.
There is currently no
other way of doing
this as the NATO
Force Structure and
national
elements
work on national CIS,
NRDC-ITA’s geospatial warrant officer using UK bulk production equipment.
thus precluding a
‘plug and play’ option.
Fighting off the same map
NATO geospatial practitioners have
always considered best practise the
ability to ‘fight off the same map’; why
would anyone do differently? Whilst
this concept is easy to understand, it is
challenging to achieve. The underpinning
resource that allows the creation of ‘the
same map’, along with a variety of other
analytical and decision support products,
is the data. No matter what the exercise
or operation, all NATO countries should
Whilst using common baseline data
meant that everyone had the same start
point, the end points reached varied. This
is salient when one thinks of ‘the rifleman
in the foxhole’ analogy. It must be
straightforward for troops on the ground
to read and understand a map so as not to
inhibit tactical thinking. There is currently
no NATO standardisation for symbology
and the marginalia of a map, which has
resulted in a wide spectrum of products
displaying the same information, but in a
multitude of different ways. The result is
that end-users are often not ‘fighting off
the same map’.
Conceived collaboration
through multinational design
From the outset of the planning it was
clear that participants were keen to
attend given the multinational nature of
the exercise, which has been a theme of
Exercise ARRCADE GLOBE throughout
time. Whilst there have always been
participants from various countries and
organisations, it has not always been
possible to achieve a collaborative
working environment, which is something
ARRCADE GLOBE 18 aimed to address.
UK reservists manning the mobile field deployable
bulk distribution system.
ALLIED RAPID REACTION CORPS
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