Human Aspects on the Network Based Defence

Transformation of the Swedish Armed Forces - national and international aspects of interoperability

Background

Since 2004, the Swedish Armed Forces have funded an extensive project that will end at the end of 2008, with the purpose of increasing their knowledge about the development of the Swedish Armed Forces into a network-based defence, and more specifically about human perspectives of interoperability.

At the outset, the theme of the project was the human perspective in the network-based defence. Quite soon after the onset of the project however, it was decided to decrease the focus on network-based defence; to treat network-based defence as an instrument instead of a goal. The main reason for this change of perspective was the Swedish decision to join the European Union Rapid Reaction Force and thereby also take the lead for the Nordic Battle Group (NBG). The setting up of the forces for the NBG (to be ready for deployment from January 2008) now became the most important issue and task for most parts of the Swedish Armed Forces.

With this decision and the development this brought with it, another issue became more topical and in need of further studies. This issue was that of interoperability. Are Swedish Forces compatible with those of the other participating nations (Estonia, Finland, Ireland, Norway)? What problems of interoperability may there be, and are there generic aspects of interoperability, regardless of context? From then on, the focus of the project lay on interoperability, and the theme of the project is described as human perspectives in the network-based defence, with special emphasis on interoperability. (Here it should be noted when talking about “human perspectives” in the Swedish Armed Forces it refers to more or less everything that is not technology.)

Interoperability

With time, the work in the project resulted in an understanding of interoperability as a concept based on four main dimensions:

• Organizational interoperability
• Structural interoperability
• Cultural interoperability  
• Social interoperability 

Interoperability is consequently seen as stretching over a broad spectrum of issues, from official as well as unofficial laws, policies and rules, to values, attitudes and technical aspects. However, an issue of interoperability seldom falls clearly into one single aspect mentioned, but spreads over various. For example, the question of rules and compliance of rules is both a structural and cultural issue, in the sense that the incentives to follow a rule or law are highly dependent on the cultural environment (traditions, historical experiences etc).

The sub-projects

In the same way as the theme and focus of the project has developed and changed over time, so have the participating subprojects. Some have been added later; a few dropped out after a year or two, and another few were in and have come back. The following subprojects have been a part of the project, for a shorter or longer time.

• Recruiting for international service – a question of selection
• Becoming professional through experience – gaining experience in international missions
• Trust in operational capability – the case of international operations
• Leadership
• Command responsibility
• Gender and interoperability
• Family support during deployment
• Graceful degradation of Command and Control System
• Operative Research Groups/Embedded research
• Navy Leadership
• Film as a media for transferring experiences – the case of Kosovo

Point of Contact

Anders W Berggren