Organization and Key Roles

Combined Endeavor is a U.S. European Command exercise consisting of a series of CIS-related interoperability conferences and a workshop planned among NATO, NATO members, Partnership for Peace nations and other organizations within the NATO/Partnership for Peace and invited nations framework that have their own CIS equipment.

It follows a multi-year, collaborative planning process in an interactive, teambuilding environment with representatives  from participating nations and organizations to design and execute the annual interoperability exercise.  Each annual exercise is designed to build on the accomplishments of the previous year's exercise.  This is accomplished through the establishment of detailed technical goals and objectives, the development of a CIS architecture to meet those objectives and design of an operations plan for execution in the field.

While the Combined Endeavor Exercise Director is an American, the remaining key leadership roles are divided among the participating nations.  The technical leadership organization includes leaders from 28 different participating nations.

Key Roles

Exercise Director:  The exercise director represents U.S. European Command and leads the CE support staff, technical director and delegation chiefs throughout the CE process.  Additionally, the exercise director ensures mission essential tasks are identified and accomplished, coalition interoperability is acheived and documented, and CE policies and procedures are documented and maintained.

Delegation Chiefs:  Each nation designates a representative to be its national delegation chief.  The delegation chiefs are responsible for the concept paper, annexes, overarching and technical goals, as well as for nominating and electing the Technical Planning Organization.  Each delegation chief identifies his national priorities, nominates national equipment for testing and validates test results for his nation. Each delegation chief has voting rights.  In the case of a tie, the Exercise Director casts a vote.

Technical Director:  The technical director leads CE technical planning, oversees the Combined Joint Communications Control Center (CJCCC), provides exercise technical requirements to site support to ensure resources are available to support the test plan, and supports the exercise director.  The technical director is responsible for:

• technical goals and objectives
• test planning
• long-term vision
• interoperability documentation
• oversight of technical planning

The technical director is supported by an assistant and two operational planners.

Combined Joint Communications Control Center (CJCCC): CJCCC assists the technical director in developing plans to accomplish the CE technical goals and objectives and designs networks that model plausible communications scenarios and integrate all types of equipment to ensure the highest level of interoperability testing.

The individual working group chairs and co-chairs transition from planning to network operations or exercise management during execution.

Working Groups:  During the planning phase of the program, CE Working Groups are established to facilitate technical planning.  Working Groups are composed fo functional area experts from the participating nations and organizations and are responsible for developing the technical network architecture and test plan.  There are six elected Working Groups:

• CJCCC
• Single Channel Radio
• Circuit Switch and IP Telephony
• Transmission Systems
• Data Transport
• Core Services

Technical Panels:  During the planning phase of the program, CE Technical Panels are established to facilitate technical planning for emerging technologies where participants may not have planners.  Technical Panels are composed of functional area experts who are responsible for developing the network architecture and test plan.  There are five elected Technical Panels:

• Frequency Management
• Studio Videoteleconferencing
• Information Assurance
• Backbone Planning
• Knowledge Management

Regional Groups:  A regional group is a grouping of several nations in accordance with regional alignments and national goals and objectives.  Each RG staff consists of a chair and deputy chair persons who are responsible for planning and coordination with working groups.  During execution, Regional Groups manage test plan execution.

CE 08 Technical Planning Organization

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