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International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences, Vol XXXV, Part B2. Istanbul 2004 
  
  
  
  
  
Figure 5. Example military overlay in GIS environment of C2IS 
4 STANDARDS, STATED BY NATO 
4.1 Automated Information Systems (AIS) Developed by 
NATO 
Over recent years the Strategic Commands’ (SC) operational 
Command and Control (C2) Information Systems (C21S) 
services have developed along independent paths and to their 
own schedules. This has resulted in two main systems: the 
Automated Command and Control Information System of 
Allied Command Europe (ACE ACCIS) and the Maritime 
Command and Control Information System (MCCIS) of Allied 
Command Atlantic (ACLANT). In addition, a plethora of 
operational C21S services have been fielded throughout NATO, 
generally without reference to the achievement of wider 
systems coherence or interoperability; many of these now fall in 
the category of legacy systems requiring replacement. 
In order to promote interoperabilty, portability, scalability and 
cost effectiveness across the whole life cycle of AIS and to 
comply with the relevant Defence Capabilities Initiative (DCI) 
action items and the NATO Consultation, Command and 
Control Organisation (NC3O) Goals and Objectives, the two 
SC's have agreed to achieve architectural convergence and 
management harmonisation with respect to all AIS services. 
4.1.1 NC3O0 Objectives: The objectives of the NC3O are 
identified below: : 
® To integrate and improve the capabilities currently provided 
by the AIS services within ACE and ACLANT and to 
NATO HQ, in order to achieve effective and interoperable 
consultation, command and control and general 
administrative functions suitable for flexible direction and 
execution of day-to-day operations within and beyond 
NATO's Area of Responsibility (AOR). 
® To merge MIS and C2IS to progressively attain an 
integrated Bi-SC AIS. 
* To facilitate the design and subsequent operation of systems 
that provide improved information flow across hierarchical 
boundaries, including operational forces, e.g. CJTF- 
requirements, and that maximise interoperability with 
_ national systems. 
4.1.2 Evolution Steps : 
maintained step by step : 
* Establishment of the common configuration among system 
users, including common software and hardware. 
Evolution of the programme was 
e In order to maintain interoperability among different user 
groups, establishment of the Military Message Handling System 
(MMHS) or NATO Messaging System Handling Project 
(NMS). 
e Through a combination of evolution steps it will expand the 
geographic scope of CCIS and provide for information 
exchange with a number of national sites concerned with 
NATO planning and consultation. Next step will be 
implemented as a Bi-SC effort in order to facilitate the 
convergence of ACE ACCIS and MCCIS to a Bi-SC AIS Core 
Capability by year 2004. 
e The last step has been planned to integrate the Functional 
Area Services (FAS) across the homogeneous application 
platform built by the Bi-SC Automated Information System 
(AIS.) These FASs, supported by common core products, 
provide specific applications to one or more mission areas (e.g., 
OPS, LOG, and Personnel.) These are normally provided by a 
database server and soflware applications, which run on either 
the end-user desktop, or on a separate application server, and 
render the requisite data to the end-users and facilitate data 
transactions such as display and modification. This step will be 
enabled by a specific set of FAS CPs, which are currently being 
developed. 
The Figure 6, provides a high-level system view that depicts the 
Bi-SC AIS Services Paradigm adopted for the Bi-SC AIS 
Architectural Framework. It comprises: 
e the WAN; 
e a Core Capability containing common services (e.g. core 
services and system management services); 
e Specific C2 (e.g. Land C2) and Administrative (e.g. 
Financial) services, which are accessed by users via the 
enabling functionality provided by the Core Capability. 
The Wide Area Network is the data network infrastructure that 
interconnects the Bi-SC AIS nodes. Its boundary lies within the 
WAN gateway facilities (currently access routers). The WAN is 
in the network domain, along with other communications 
services such as video tele-conferencing and telephony. lt is 
therefore not part of the Core Capability although it is essential 
to interconnecting AIS nodes. 
The Bi-SC AIS Core Capability is the foundation on which the 
Bi-SC AIS will be built. As such it will provide the common 
services to support the SCs end users' core business. The 
achievement of the Bi-SC AIS Core Capability will be the first 
Bi-SC AIS convergence milestone and will be the result of the 
harmonisation and standardisation of the Core Capability 
services of the two SCs: i.e. ACE-ACCIS core components and 
the ACLANT MCCIS Architectural Convergence Initiative 
(MACI) core components. This will include the common 
implementation of other essential capabilities (e.g. message 
handling, document management, etc.).