Three transmission shelters, armour REMUS cabins of server type and other items of equipment had to be transported to Spain where the MNC NE and CSB team participated in the exercise Steadfast Cathode, which was conducted from 14th to 24th April 2008.
Joint multinational exercising
An annual joint NATO Communication and Information Systems (CIS) exercise Steadfast Cathode 2008 was organised in Alvarez de Castro Base in Sant Climent De Sescebes Girona (SPAIN), approximately 150 km from Barcelona, Spain. It was conducted under the lead of the Headquarters Component Command – Land Madrid (HQ CC – Land Madrid). The main aim was to exercise Communications and Information Systems and to confirm interoperability of these systems in the NATO environment.
The exercise was above all prepared for the NATO Response Force (NRF) as the so-called primary audience. However, there were also other formations, e.g. the 1st German-Netherlands Corps or NATO Rapid Deployable Corps Italy and many others, which as secondary audience participated in the exercise. The Multinational Corps Northeast was represented by the personnel mostly from G-6 Division as well as representatives from the affiliated with the Corps Command Support Brigade (CSB). To be more specific, this group of soldiers came from the Headquarters Command Support Brigade and from its subordinate units – the Polish 100th Signal Battalion and German 610th Signal Battalion.
What was it all about?
During the exercise Steadfast Cathode 2008 the interoperability, meaning the ability to communicate and exchange information, among Nations, and between NATO and Nations was tested. This ability was checked in an environment as close as possible to an operational one in different security domains, like NATO Secret, Mission Secret or NATO Unclassified. The emphasis was put on practical tests and training, but there was also place for an experimental phase, which was to test new technologies, which can be further implemented in NATO.
For example, our MNC NE and CSB team first established connection internally and afterwards, the connection was created with the NATO environment via satellite link. As a matter of fact, the team also kept in touch with the home base at the Baltic Barracks in Szczecin. And as one of the participants of the exercise, Maj. Stanek summarized, the results achieved in the exercise were satisfactory as the expected aims were achieved.
It is important to state that the soldiers had a chance not only to familiarize with different CIS equipment from NATO partners, but also to establish good relationships with the participants from other countries and NATO Headquarters.
