NATO Communications and Information Agency delegation visits Madrid Detachment

• The visit takes place in the framework of the NCIA delegation's meetings with Spanish industries for aerospace defence collaboration

A commission from the NATO Communications and Information Agency (NCIA), led by its Director, General Ludwig Decamps, visited the Agency's Detachment at the Torrejón Air Base in Madrid, where it was received by Spanish Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Jorge Francisco Sánchez Barbancho, head of the Detachment.

The visit takes place within the framework of the meetings that the head of the NCIA Agency holds periodically with all its dependent bodies. On this occasion, Decamps was accompanied by the head of the technology office, Antonio Calderón, the head of acquisitions, Jennifer Upton, the president of the Agency's supervisory body, Luis Astorga, and Lieutenant Colonel Mario Golling, aide-de-camp to the NCIA director.

The main objective of the visit was to meet the staff stationed at the Madrid Detachment and to recall their essential role as intermediaries between the Agency and the operational centres it serves and to remind them that they are representatives of the Agency's values in their day-to-day work. As a secondary objective, Decamps pointed out the new developments to come in terms of requirements, structure and applications. Finally, he held a discussion with the staff in which they were able to express their concerns.

Once the discussion was over, the commission had the opportunity to visit the facilities where the Detachment has deployed the necessary equipment to provide its services, as well as the facilities of the Torrejón Combined Air Operations Centre (CAOCT).

After the visit, the director of the NCIA was received by Lieutenant General Fernando de la Cruz Caravaca, commander of the CAOCT, with whom he held a meeting in which they both reviewed some points of interest for this organisation.

NCIA Detachment- Madrid

NCIA Detachment-Madrid, under the direct command of a lieutenant colonel of the Spanish Air Force, is responsible for providing communications and information services to NATO's Combined Air Operations Centre as well as serving as a liaison point with other agencies in Spain.

The Spanish Armed Forces make an important contribution to the CAOC's mission. Some 120 Spanish military personnel serve in the CAOC as well as in the National Support Element (NSE) and the NATO Communications and Information Agency Unit (NCIA).