Coalition Interoperability: A Pragmatic C4ISR Approach From the U.S. Army CECOM Security Assistance Perspective

Achieving coalition interoperability is difficult; competing National interests (military, economic or political) probably will necessitate imposing compromise solutions. Architecting solutions, which all respective parties would adopt and adhere to, is therefore problematic. To address these problem areas, a combination of a system architecture and design methodology is employed that emphasizes the use of COTS products. There are several recognizable phases within this approach, most of which are recognizable: Operational capability requirement definition Analysis Architecture synthesis; Component solution identification and capabilities assessment; Design synthesis This paper will discuss some of the problems defining interoperable coalition system architectures for these defined organizations and our approach to circumventing these obstacles. The paper will be presented from the US Army CECOM Security Assistance perspective in utilizing US grant funds such as Foreign Military Financing (FMF) to provide solutions for foreign militaries and multinational military organizations.