NCI Agency, AFCEA Sign 3-year Cooperative Agreement
The NATO Communications and Information (NCI) Agency and AFCEA International this week signed a three-year Strategic Cooperation Arrangement that strengthens efforts to improve support for command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (C4ISR) needs and missions for NATO’s member nations.
The NATO Communications and Information (NCI) Agency and AFCEA International this week signed a three-year Strategic Cooperation Arrangement that strengthens efforts to improve support for command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (C4ISR) needs and missions for NATO’s member nations.
The NCI Agency and AFCEA started their cooperation in 2013 to promote military C4ISR technologies and policies for military, governments, academia and industry. Leaders signed the renewal agreement following the acclaimed NITEC 2016 cyber conference, hosted this year in Tallinn, Estonia. Previous conferences have been held in Bucharest and Madrid. The next joint event, NITEC 2017, will take place in Ottawa in April.
NATO officials announced in Tallinn roughly 3 billion euros ($3.4 billion) in funding for future cyber-based initiatives to match—and then surpass—the increasingly sophisticated attacks against its 28-member alliance—set to be 29 members after NATO formally invited Montenegro earlier this year. Increased Russian aggression, instability in Europe’s south, the Syrian refugee crisis and evolving cyberthreats all have contributed toward new strategic realities, but also jockey for the same pot of limited financial resources—mobilizing the alliance to strengthen collaborations with industry for vital solutions.
