Big interview
the title “Technology in Focus”, the event is intended to engage with industry partners and provide a better understanding of new opportunities through working with the NCI Agency. At the same time, it will help the agency better understand what its industry partners are providing for other defence organisations and national defence ministries, and to further build connections between both groups.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky shakes hands with Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg after the Ukraine-Nato Commission meeting.
Decamps acknowledges, but notes that there are already opportunities within Nato to use these technologies today. Cloud computing has already found its entry into the private and public sectors, and quantum computing can offer a wide range of benefits for cryptographic capabilities. AI, meanwhile, presents a number of opportunities that stem from the huge amount of data that Nato possesses – gathered from exercises that it runs and true-life operations like those conducted in Afghanistan, which the agency can analyse using AI to derive a number of lessons. For most of these advanced technologies, Nato generally relies on the technological innovation to take place in the private sector and with industry. “Where we come in is actually making that technology available for use within Nato,” Decamps acknowledges. The agency may not lead on the technology itself, but where it does lead is on applying that technology into multinational operations, he adds, noting that this requires having the right skill sets inside the organisation. As a result, as part of the NCI Agency’s Strategic Plan, the agency is conducting a review of all the skill sets it needs for the future, in order to better define the professional competencies that it requires. In that same vein, Decamps is quick to acknowledge the NCI Agency and Nato’s dependence on industry to provide solutions for emerging obstacles. “We want to build long-lasting partnerships with industry,” he notes. “Of course, when it comes to contracts, we will continue to go for international competitive bidding – there should be no doubt about that – but we want to do it in a way that, through competition, we engage with industry in a dialogue.”
Through this, he hopes that the NCI Agency will gain a better understanding of what the market can provide today – the current trends, solutions and best practices – rather than becoming over-prescriptive on solutions for the future. With this in mind, the NCI Agency is set to host the first Nato Edge conference in Mons, Belgium, at the end of October 2022. Operating under
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Keep pace with the future Another way in which the NCI Agency intends to keep pace with the future, Decamps says, is through its creation of the NCI Academy. Located in Oerias, Portugal, the academy has sprung out of the agency’s communication information systems (CIS) schools, the focus of which was mainly on training operators for deployable communication systems, satellites or ground stations and Nato commands, though has now expanded to include a broader curriculum. Decamps hopes that the academy can help to enhance the understanding of mid-career and senior leaders on cybersecurity, as well as the opportunities and challenges presented by emerging technologies. This all contributes to the NCI Agency’s main goal, which Decamps describes as “first and foremost, keeping the agency and Nato synchronised with a rapid technological evolution”. With regards to NCI Agency’s relationship with
Nato’s political agenda, Decamps expects to see an enhanced Nato presence in eastern Europe in terms of defence and deterrence, one that will be there to stay for the foreseeable future. “I don’t necessarily see a repeat of the Cold War from that perspective, because technology has changed so much – and so have the environments,” he says. “We have seen, with the Russian invasion of Ukraine, how important it is to share intelligence and how we – as an agency that has ‘information’ in its name – can further support that agenda.”
All this has further cemented in Decamps mind the importance of Nato’s transatlantic nature, which he sees as the Alliance’s true strength above all else. He notes, by way of example, recent events like the strategic initiative on artificial intelligence horizon scanning in May 2022, co-hosted by the NCI Agency and the Nato Science and Technology Organization (STO), which aimed to better understand AI and its potential military implications. “It’s great to see that, when we reach out to industry, there’s a real transatlantic dialogue that we are promoting through such events. I wouldn’t say it’s unique, but it’s definitely a defining feature for the Alliance,” says Decamps. “Where else in the world would you find such a high concentration of experts on artificial intelligence, not just at the national level, but the multinational level – and beyond that, transatlantic, too? That is definitely something we want to embed in our approach for the future.” ●
Defence & Security Systems International /
www.defence-and-security.com
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