Revolutionising Alliance Crises Response one Experiment at a Time

ACT PAO17 July 2014Published on 17 July 2014

NATO Allied Command Transformation's (ACT) Operational Experimentation (OPEX) Branch supported by the Operational Analysis Branch 14
18 July conducted a NATO Joint Sea Based Operations (NJSBO) Deployable Joint Headquarters (DJHQ) Planning Considerations Limited
Objective Experiment (LOE). The experiment took place at Headquarters Naval Striking and Support Forces NATO (STRIKFORNATO) in
Portugal.

The NJSBO DJHQ LOE gathered participants from different NATO commands, STRIKFORNATO and Centres of Excellence (COE), including
the Combined Joint Operations from the Sea (CJOS) COE, the Operations in Confined and Shallow Waters (CSW) COE and the Command and
Control (C2) COE.

"STRIKFORNATO was honoured to host the ACT NJSBO DJHQ LOE. Having been recently certified as a 'High Readiness Deployable Joint Task
Force Maritime and Expeditionary Headquarters', we are in a unique position to leverage our experience and contribute to the NJSBO
concept's continued development," said Turkish Navy Captain Alper Yeniel, SFN, ACOS J5.

The LOE was conducted in support of the development of the NJSBO Concept Implementation Plan, with the aim of identifying key planning
considerations for NJSBO, through the examination of military C2 options against various NATO operations planning situations.

According to JFC Brunssum, Colonel Wouter Sleurink, "NJSBO is not the panacea for all operations, but another tool in the toolbox to make
the Alliance more expeditionary." Colonel Sleurink suggested that the manoeuvre space of the sea could be used in a mix with all the other
options available to deploy and execute the mission, in size, in time, in whatever manner suitable to accomplish the mission.

The NJSBO Concept is an innovative way to transform how the Alliance could respond to crises with NATO joint forces. The central idea of the
concept is to create sustained effects, across the full spectrum of Alliance operations, on and from the sea. This option minimises the
requirement for a footprint ashore, while allowing the Commander to maintain freedom of manoeuvre and achieve operational and/or tactical
advantage by operating from the sea.

"The experimentation staff has prepared the tools the participants need to explore the ideal C2 configuration of a deployed joint headquarters
when that headquarters is limited to being afloat and can only use existing/planned NATO resources," said Canadian Navy Commander Paul
Delhaise from ACT Concept Development Branch. "We anticipate the results achieved by this experiment will continue to broaden the
knowledge obtained by STRIKFORNATO's recent certification as a Joint Headquarters (Maritime/Expeditionary) as we develop the
implementation plan for the NATO Joint Sea-Based Operations Concept."

As part of its Maritime experimentation programme and campaign - and still in support of the NJSBO Concept Implementation Plan - NATO
ACT Experimenters will conduct another LOE in 2015 aimed on Logistics Planning Considerations for NJSBO.

For more information on the NJSBO DJHQ LOE, please contact: German Navy Commander Henning Rathke, NATO ACT Operational
Experimentation (OPEX), +1 (757) 747-3326, henning.rathke@act.nato.int