Joint Cyberspace Command and Joint Staff participate in the ‘NATO Digital Backbone Experiment’

• NATO DiBaX 2024' has provided a great opportunity for the validation and exploration of innovative solutions

Spain participated in the NATO DiBaX (NATO Digital Backbone Experiment) held at the Adazi Military Base and the port of Riga, aiming to demonstrate the use of technologies that can enable Multi-Domain Operations (MDO) within the Alliance. The exercise was led by ACT, with support from the Latvian Ministry of Defence, and involved the United States, Latvia, Estonia, Norway, Sweden and Spain.

The Spanish team, led by Joint Staff (EMACON) and Joint Cyberspace Command (MCCE), with the outstanding participation of the Head of the Information Systems, Telecommunications and Technical Assistance Department (JCISAT) of the Spanish Army, technical assistance staff from Spanish Defence Systems Engineering (ISDEFE) and the companies Telefónica and Ravenloop, has been preparing its participation for several months, which has meant a huge effort of coordination and joint work, both at national level and with the rest of the allied participants, in a context of high technical level.

For the exercise, an architecture has been built to allow a force to deploy to another nation, using its 5G-enabled applications and devices (such as drones, robots and user devices) using the network of that nation by leveraging 5G secure roaming; radio access network (RAN) sharing; as well as, interconnection between a 5G core and tactical radio networks.

In short, a shift in the interoperability paradigm has been presented by establishing NATO as a 5G service provider. The contribution of Spanish companies, Telefónica and Ravenloop, has been essential in making the roaming architecture a reality and implementing it.

Spanish participation was materialised in the contribution of personnel and resources, both physically in Adazi and Spain. Spain provided a National 5G CORE on National Territory, the main TAK Server of the exercise, to which those of the other participants were federated for Situational Awareness (SA), with the capacity to integrate the videos taken from the cameras of the participating drones or robots. All these systems were managed remotely from Spain.

The experiment that generated great expectation among the Observer Day and VIP Day attendees was the Unmanned Ground Vehicle (UGV) which, on loan from National Institute for Aerospace Technology (INTA) and adapted by ET JCISAT staff to include perimeter surveillance, object/person recognition using on-board Artificial Intelligence and 5G connectivity. It was remotely piloted from JCISAT's facilities in Pozuelo de Alarcón, with exceptionally low latency (60 milliseconds) and receiving the camera video in real time.

The VIP day was chaired by the Estonian Prime Minister and the Latvian Prime Minister. The Commander of the Joint Cyberspace Command (MCCE), Vice Admiral Francisco Javier Roca and the Head of JCISAT, Major General Guillermo Ramírez Altozano, headed the Spanish delegation, and received the thanks of NATO ACT and US DoD for the Spanish contribution to the exercise.

NATO DiBaX 2024 provided a great opportunity for the validation and exploration of innovative solutions; the results of the experiments conducted will be used to inform the development and implementation of concepts and capabilities related to digital transformation and Multidomain Operations. Equally important was the development of human expertise and networks that provide the basis for accelerating the development of Next Generation Communications Technologies for the Alliance.