• Military Menu                       

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Industry
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• WMD
• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

Multinational experiment kicks off

Military members from six nations and NATO will examine how coalition information sharing can help build information on an adversary's possible capabilities during a USJFCOM-led experiment.

JFCOM Release

Release Date: 2/2/2004

(SUFFOLK, VA. -- Feb. 2, 2004) - Military elements from around the world started today a three-week experiment led by U. S. Joint Forces Command (USJFCOM) during which the command will examine the level of information sharing available with coalition nations and, together, ascertain an enemy's socioeconomic, political, military and technological potential.

Multinational Experiment 3 (MNE3), running through Feb. 20, 2004, will act as a process-refinement test of functional war fighting concepts. Specific concepts to be addressed will focus on coalition effects based operations (EBO) between Australia, Canada, France, Germany, United Kingdom, U.S. and NATO, according to the organizers within USJFCOM's Joint Experimentation Directorate (J9).

According to Navy Cmdr. Edward Whalen, J9's MNE3 experiment director, the underlying goal of the experiment is "to develop a multinational effects based planning process that that accounts for the national priorities, requirements and procedures of the coalition partners."

MNE3 will evaluate the ability of coalition nations and the NATO Response Force (NRF) to develop and assess processes and organizations and to identify technology requirements to support the planning of a coalition effects-based campaign.

MNE 3 represents the third part of a four-part series of USJFCOM multinational experiments.

During the experiment, USJFCOM will work with coalition partners through various wartime scenarios to test and refine concepts such as effects-based planning (EBP), effects-based operations (EBO), operational network assessments (ONA), and the collaborative information environment (CIE).

According to organizers, this approach to a multinational military campaign demands that planners develop and exploit a better understanding of increasingly complex adversaries, as well as of the true values and mindsets of adversaries, allies, and neutrals.

Citing the importance of being well connected with coalition partners, Whalen said, "interoperability allows different nations to operate in conjunction with each other during various crises."

MNE3 aims to build on lessons learned from previous multi-national experiments and to explore concepts and supporting tools for effects-based planning (EBP) within a coalition environment, in order to assist the development of future processes, organizations and technologies at the joint task force level of command.

During the experiment, USJFCOM will participate from the Distributed Continuous Experimentation Environment (DCEE) laboratory, Suffolk, Va. Other nations will participate from their national experimentation facilities. NATO will operate from a separate facility in Germany.