GRAFENWOEHR, Germany - United States Marines finished setting up their virtual Combat Operations Center network at Mission Network 2 Sept. 8, prior to Combined Endeavor 2011 in Grafenwoehr, Germany. The exercise offers the opportunity to learn about interoperability issues while building world-wide relationships with more than 35 NATO and Partnership for Peace countries.
Combined Endeavor is a multi-national exercise, designed to increase interoperability and communication applications between nearly 40 NATO and Partnership for Peace countries. More than 1,100 members from various countries are participating in the 2011 exercise.
Maj. David Norton, Marine Core Tactical Systems Support Activity officer in charge, from Camp Pendleton, Calif., is the Operational Systems Controller for mission network two at the Virtual Forward Operating Site during Combined Endeavor 2011.
“At the Virtual Forward Operating Site for the Combined Endeavor 2011, we have 13 Nations that are tied together to simulate a forward operating site within the joint architecture for this exercise,” Norton said. “My job is to coordinate all of the countries tying their individual nation’s architectures into the coalitions’ network and to coordinate all the different interoperability tests.”
Norton said the exercise directly supports current real world issues they are facing today. Their goal is focused on overcoming challenges the Afghanistan Mission Network is encountering and strengthening relationships with allied partners.
“We are working side-by-side with countries like Denmark and Georgia that are our partners in deployed environments, and identifying real world problems in an attempt to find solutions while we are here. We can then take these solutions directly into Afghanistan and hopefully be able to save lives and avoid communication issues for those downrange,” he said.
Norton said Combined Endeavor 2011 helps improve systems that are used by Marines at home and down range. This relevance to current day operations showcases the importance of large scale multi-nation exercises like Combined Endeavor.
“As part of the Marine Corps Acquisition Process, we have a very unique mission within our unit,” he said. “Our goal here is to identify interoperability issues that can help develop better systems, so we can field or improve the current systems Marines have out in the field.”
As the MCTSSA officer in charge, Norton’s home station duty grants him access to make the lessons learned at Combined Endeavor 2011 immediately accessible to Marines and allied partners around the world.
Norton said the exercise gives them the opportunity to test the capabilities of their equipment while working side-by-side with allied nations. “This is the only opportunity we have where there are forty different countries employing their systems in a sand box type of environment where we have free rein to take things to a breaking point and see what happens.”