JAPCC Hosts 5th Annual Joint Air & Space Networking Meeting

Kalkar, Germany. On 5 and 6 December, 2018, the NATO Joint Air Power Competence Centre hosted its 5th annual Joint Air & Space Power Networking Meeting in the JAPCC’s home base in Kalkar, Germany. The event attracted defence-related NATO, EU and MOU organisations to discuss current programmes of work and areas of concern, with an eye towards identifying new opportunities to collaborate in the development of effective solutions. This year’s event yielded several opportunities for immediate collaboration in areas such as: improving safe, secure and efficient NATO access to European airspace in peacetime; looking into how EATC can best support NATO during an Article V scenario; and ongoing challenges of integrating 5th Generation technologies into existing NATO and European force and C2 structures. All in all 12 such areas of common concern were identified.

This year the JAPCC welcomed representatives from NATO Headquarters, NATO Air Command (AIRCOM), the NATO Science and Technology Organisation (STO), the European Air Transport Command (EATC), the European Air Group (EAG), the Competence Centre for Surface Based Air and Missile Defence (CCSBAMD), Air Operations Centre of Excellence (CASPOA) and the European Defence Agency (EDA) to the event. To facilitate continued collaboration throughout the year, the JAPCC provides a secure online collaborative workspace.

The JAPCC hosts a similar event in the Spring called the Think Tank Forum (TTF) that brings together representatives of national air warfare centres and related academic institutions with similar purpose. While the two fora are kept separate to keep each manageable in scale, JAPCC intends to promote greater crossflow of information by providing the results of each event to the members of the other in order to further facilitate expanded awareness and cooperation. For information about the JAPSN, the TTF, or other JAPCC events, please visit www.japcc.org or follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.