The NATO Consultation, Command and Control Agency (NC3A) was formed in 1996 by merging the

SHAPE Technical Centre Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE) Technical Centre (STC) was the agency within the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's (NATO) Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe , SHAPE command that conducted air defence resesearch and de ...

(STC) in

The Hague The Hague ( ) is the capital city of the South Holland province of the Netherlands. With a population of over half a million, it is the third-largest city in the Netherlands. Situated on the west coast facing the North Sea, The Hague is the c ...

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

; and the NATO Communications and Information Systems Agency (NACISA) in

Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

. NC3A was part of the

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental Transnationalism, transnational military alliance of 32 Member states of NATO, member s ...

Consultation, Command and Control Organization (

NC3O The NATO Consultation, Command and Control Organization (NC3O) was formed in 1996. Its main objective is to provide a coherent, secure and interoperable C3 capability to the NATO. The NATO Consultation, Command and Control Board (NATO C3 Board or ...

) and reported to the NATO Consultation, Command and Control Board ( NC3B). In July 2012, NC3A was merged into the

NATO Communications and Information Agency The NATO Communications and Information Agency (NCI Agency) is NATO's technology and cyber hub. The Agency provides C4ISR (Command, Control, Communications, and Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance; refer to Command and cont ...

(NCIA). The agency had around 800 staff, of which around 500 were located in The Hague and 300 in Brussels. Broadly speaking, the Netherlands staff were responsible for scientific research, development and experimentation, while the Belgian staff provided technical project management and acquisition support for NATO procurement programmes. The Agency was organised using a balanced matrix model, with four main areas: the Production area, Sponsor Accounts, Core Segment and Resources Division. The Production area consisted of nine capability area teams (CATs) with various areas of expertise. The Sponsor Accounts area had Directors for each of the Agency's major sponsors, providing a single point of contact with the Agency. The Core Segment comprised a Chief Operating Officer, Chief Technology Officer and Director of Acquisition, who ensured coherency of the Agency's business, technical and acquisition processes respectively. The Resources Division handled Agency operations such as Human Resources, Finance, Graphics, Building Maintenance, etc. Since 2004, the Agency used the

PRINCE2 PRINCE2 (PRojects IN Controlled Environments) is a structured project management method and practitioner certification programme. PRINCE2 emphasises dividing projects into manageable and controllable stages. It is adopted in many countries wor ...

and PMI project management methodologies. General Manager Georges D'hollander and Deputy General Manager Kevin Scheid split their time between their offices in The Hague and Brussels. Staff were recruited directly from the 28 NATO nations, the majority holding degrees at the Masters level or above. The working language of the Agency was English. NC3A's prime customers were

Allied Command Transformation Allied Command Transformation (ACT; French language, French: ''Commandement allié Transformation'') is a military command (military formation), command of the NATO, North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), formed in 2003 after restructuring. ...

and

Allied Command Operations The Allied Command Operations (ACO) is one of the two strategic commands of the NATO, North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the other being Allied Command Transformation (ACT). The headquarters and commander of ACO is Supreme Headquarters A ...

, as well as the NATO Air Command and Control System (ACCS) Management Agency ( NACMA), NATO Airborne Early Warning (NAEW) Force Command and individual NATO nations. Its annual budget was roughly 100 million euros. Major growth areas were the NATO Network Enabled Capability (NNEC), Theatre Missile Defence (TMD) and the Alliance Ground Surveillance and Reconnaissance (AGSR) projects. The Agency traditionally had a strong emphasis on prototyping and aimed to follow a spiral development model. The agency focused on improving C4ISR interoperability between nations and supporting major acquisition programmes while complementing, not competing with, national research and development.

References

External links

NCIA official web site

NCI Agency Jobs

The Distributed Networked Battle Labs

NACMA official web site
* {{small, (1.68 MiB) Command and control Information operations units and formations of NATO Military research institutes