Success of the SEISMO system in NATO’s interoperability exercises

Spain has taken part in NATO’s Technical Interoperability Experiment for 2012 (TIE12) with the GMV-developed Mobile ISTAR Operating system (called SEISMO after its Spanish initials: Sistema de Explotación ISTAR Móvil). The system came through all the technical and operational interoperability tests with flying colours. It outperformed all the other participating operating systems, coming top with a 100% success rate.

The SEISMO program, funded by the Subdirectorate General of Technology and Innovation (SUBTECIN in Spanish initials) of the Directorate General of Armaments and Material (DGAM), form’s part of Spain’s participation in the multinational cooperation program MAJIIC2 (Multi-Intelligence All-Source Joint Intelligence Surveillance And Reconnaissance Interoperability Coalition). This program, a multinational effort involving nine NATO members plus NC3A, aims to enforce the standards and capabilities that facilitate sharing of Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) products and maximize the use of surveillance and reconnaissance resources. It also sets out to improve situational awareness through collaborative employment and use of interoperable ISR sensor and exploitation capabilities. The program agreements include the conducting of experiments and exercises to develop capabilities, both technical and operational, and progressively improve and fine-tune the systems on the basis of the lessons learnt.

The exercise was held from 5 to 23 March 2012. The NATO Consultation, Command and Control Agency (NC3A), based in the Hague, Netherlands, was the venue for most of the exercises, with a WAN connection with Langley Air Force Base (Virginia, USA). The participating nations were France, Germany, Holland, Norway, Spain, the UK and US.

TIE12 focused on the ability of sharing standard-compliant ISR products, ensuring interoperability of the various nations’ systems for sharing, processing and exchanging these ISR products as efficiently, quickly and reliably as possible while supporting collaboration tools in a network architecture environment. Finally, an assessment was also made of the effectiveness of the military procedures for the collaborative use and employment of several ISR capabilities and the obtaining and operation of ISR products in a shared network environment.

The exercise was a resounding success in terms of inter-country collaboration and particularly the level of technical and operational capabilities demonstrated by the SEISMO system.