Who We Are
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Background
NATO Joint Warfare Centre was established on October 23, 2003, in Jåttå, Stavanger, Norway, subordinate to Headquarters Supreme Allied Commander Transformation (HQ SACT), in Norfolk, Virginia, the United States. The Joint Warfare Centre achieved its Full Operational Capability in 2006.
Organization
The Joint Warfare Centre is a multi-national and multi-service NATO organization with 261 military and civilian personnel from seventeen nations, including Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Türkiye
Mission
The Joint Warfare Centre provides NATO's training focal point for full spectrum joint operational level warfare. The Joint Warfare Centre, as part of the NATO Command Structure, directly supports the missions of Supreme Allied Commander Transformation (SACT) and Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR). The Centre contributes to the overall warfighting readiness of NATO Command and Force Structure Headquarters and, when directed, National and/or NATO Headquarters deploying on operations.
Vision
"The Joint Warfare Centre drives the delivery of collective training and warfare development at the operational and strategic levels of warfare.
We are NATO’s trusted advisor bridging Operations and Transformation, underpinning NATO readiness and future capability development.
The Joint Warfare Centre attracts and develops the most capable staff, both permanent and augmentees, based on a reputation for excellence built on a culture of professionalism, curiosity, innovation, and cooperation."
Major General Piotr Malinowski, Commander Joint Warfare Centre, Polish Army
Themes
I. Managing Complexity:
Through collective training and exercises, as well as warfare development, the Joint Warfare Centre offers a unique opportunity to develop NATO talent.
II. Future Exercise Environment:
The Joint Warfare Centre offers NATO and the Nations fictitious but realistic exercise settings and scenarios with a 360° approach, enabling NATO readiness.
III. Training Audience Opportunities:
The exercises directed by the Joint Warfare Centre offer unique opportunities to make NATO better, that is making the Alliance Forces more ready and more interoperable.
IV. Warfare Development:
Through exercises and transformational activities, the Joint Warfare Centre exposes new ideas and concepts, reveals best practices, bridges the gaps between doctrine and practice, and enables experimentation.
Key Outputs
Output I: Collective Training and Exercises
The Joint Warfare Centre provides NATO’s Computer-Assisted Command Post Exercises (CAX/CPX) at the operational and strategic levels, for both non-Article 5 Crisis Response Operations and Article 5 Collective Defence.
Output II: Warfare Development
NATO Joint Warfare Centre is a warfare development establishment.
As a catalyst for warfare development, the Joint Warfare Centre ensures:
• Adherence to NATO joint operational doctrine and standards,
• Implementation of experimentation and new concepts,
• Support to the delivery of NATO lessons learned process.
Core Exercise Functions
Our training environment includes core exercise functions, organic to the Joint Warfare Centre, to ensure the best possible outcomes for any training experience:
- Our Scenario and Scripting teams create and maintain complex and realistic scenarios including storylines, incidents and operational dilemmas with a 360-degree approach to current and emerging threats.
- Our Exercise Control and Advisory teams ensure that the exercise stays on course, committed to helping the training audience meet each challenge of the exercise.
- Our Higher Control and Grey Cell replicate all non-military partners, organizations, as well as political and strategic processes.
- Our Computer Simulation team provides the birds-eye detail of all the boots on the ground, in the air and at sea.
- Our Opposing Forces create the adversarial picture designed to challenge the Training Audience.
- Our Media team provides the backbone for a complex and ever changing information battle space, covering all aspects of the conflict.
- Lastly, our CIS brings it all together, providing seamless communication between all parties involved.
A Summary of Roles and Responsibilities
NATO Joint Warfare Centre:
- Plans, prepares, and executes operational and strategic level collective training events and exercises,
- Incorporates warfare development activities into collective training and exercises, including the test, validation and integration of new concepts and doctrine development; applies the lessons learned process,
- Develops and sustains settings, baseline scenarios, and exercise-specific scenarios required to support joint operational and strategic level exercises,
- Contributes to developing and strengthening relationships and integration of national training and command organizations, governmental and non-governmental organizations as well as regional security organizations and partners, in accordance with established policy and principles.