Slovenian Armed Forces Cpl. Andres Hares, fault and performance monitor with the combined staff 6, responsible for information assurance, network monitoring and system analysis, assesses a mission group’s response to a cyber-attack during exercise Combined Endeavor 14 in Grafenwhor, Germany, Sept. 9, 2014. (Photo by Sgt. Derrick Irions / U.S. Marine Corps Forces, Europe and Africa)
NATO EDGE 2024 — The NATO Communications and Information Agency (NCIA) has released its first technology strategy, aimed at bolstering innovation so the alliance can reach the digital capabilities it needs to conduct full scale multi-domain operations by 2030.
The strategy, unveiled Tuesday, builds off of NATO’s existing digital transformation vision by creating more specific projects and technology focus areas, NCIA chief technology officer Antonio Calderon said.
“This is a result of many consultations, workshops, brainstorming, and some decisions covering different dimensions. The selection criteria was how we can match the technologies that will bring NATO closer to the challenge of digital transformation,” Calderon said Tuesday during a panel discussion here in Tampa.
The strategy introduces the NATO Digital Foundry, a project that will provide opportunities for NCIA, industry, not-for-profit organizations and other NATO stakeholders to collaborate on new technologies. The idea is to get products from the prototyping stage into the hands of warfighters faster all while being secure and interoperable, Calderon said.
“It’s about creating a secure, open platform for industry or academia or national centers,” Calderon said. “Then you can bring your products or prototypes or DIANA [Defense Innovation for the North Atlantic] startups ideas, and then we will offer those innovators [the products] to the rest of NATO. We can offer you connections to our air command-and-control labs, ballistic missile defense labs, our crypto labs, our network reference facilities and all those, whether physical or virtual.”
The strategy focuses on six technology themes which include:
- Data exploitation
- Cloud computing
- Next generation networks
- Space technologies
- Cybersecurity and cyberspace technologies
- Quantum
“Even though we selected six technology teams, the power is about interconnecting different technologies, because when you bring them together, then you have that force multiplier that brings innovatio,” Calderon said. “It took months of discussion to confirm that those are the ones that will bring the most value, because we have thousands of technologies to choose from.”
The data exploitation focus aims to “leverage data as a strategic resource to contribute to cognitive and decision superiority and enable [multi-domain operations],” the strategy reads. This theme heavily focuses on exploring artificial intelligence and machine learning for improved data management so the alliance and its warfighters can make better, quicker data-informed decisions.
The focal point of the strategy’s cloud computing theme is cloud adoption. The strategy explains that NATO needs to move its data to a cloud environment because as “capabilities become increasingly software-based and software-defined, the cloud’s role as an open, secure and scalable platform driving modern innovation and collaboration approaches has become essential.” Cloud adoption also includes the federation of clouds, which means the ability for different cloud providers and systems to work together.
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The strategy explains that the next generation networks focus area is designed to provide communication services that are “resilient” in “high throughput and low latency” environments. This includes implementing safeguards when using 5G networks and putting “severe pressure on the radio frequency spectrum, particularly the one for primary military use, at every World Radio Conference cycle,” according to the strategy.
The space technologies focus area expands on NATO’s “need to guarantee” access to data, products and services (DPS) and to “assure” the defense capabilities that will limit adversarial use of space enabled and space-based systems against NATO. That means harnessing SATCOM, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR); positioning, navigation and timing and other technologies. NATO also wants to establish responsive launch capabilities that will allow new satellites to be launched on a “ready-to-go” basis so the alliance can have quicker access to DPS.
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For cybersecurity, the strategy outlines two aims. The first is the introduction and implementation of modern cyber architectures in all member nations. It highlights the need for zero trust principles and “secure integration” when using information and operation technologies.
The second aim is focused on supporting cyberspace operations both offensively and defensively. For example, the use of ISR, counter AI technologies and “cyberspace targeting.” In the realm of AI, the strategy aims to establish a “cyber immune system” which will not only defend against cyber threats but also autonomously “self-repair and adapt in case of breaches.”
Lastly, the strategy highlights NATO’s role in quantum technologies. This was the “more controversial” theme when building the strategy, Calderon said, because some involved in the process “don’t believe quantum will ever be reality.”
Still, NATO plans to invest in quantum sensors to maintain the alliance’s “technological edge.” Furthermore, the strategy warns of the potential dangers of quantum computers and calls for developing quantum key distributors and quantum number generators that can protect against quantum computer’s ability to break cryptography that protects the alliance’s machines.
