VIKING 08 - Advanced Technology supports the Exercise
VIKING 08 is a multinational and multifunctional Exercise in the Spirit of Partnership for Peace.
The exercise was executed 03-14 November 2008.
This Exercise is the fifth in the VIKING Exercise series which started in 1999.
In VIKING 08 the scenario was based on a peacekeeping operation and, with both military and civil parties involved, questions of gender and diversity form an important part of the exercise.
The Exercise was built on a fictitious scenario involving several countries in deep crises. A substantial NATO Joint Task Force is intervening in one country. In a neighboring country a European Union Battle group is giving assistance. Both forces are operating under UN Security Council's resolutions and co-coordinating with one UN Mission covering both countries. United Nations are present on the ground with a mission Headquarters, several regional Headquarters and agencies co-operating with International Aid Organizations and Non Governmental Organizations.
The North Friendly Sea Scenario is strictly fictitious and located in the Baltic Sea region. It supports the overall Exercise objectives, a set out in the Exercise Specification, as well as the detailed military and civilian training objectives.
The scenario contains various fictitious countries and supports a range of key issues for multinational and multifunctional involvement.
Reasons for international involvement in North Friendly Sea:
• The spill-over effect to neighboring countries
• Ethnic, religious and cultural related violence
• Huge humanitarian need
• Security vacuum
• Breakdown of law and order
• Economic collapse
A number of NATO and Partnership for Peace countries participated in VIKING 08 with military staff. Many civilian institutions and organizations declared their interest to join in the Exercise.
An estimated participation of some 25 nationalities and 2000 military and police officers and civilian representatives worked during the Exercise in approximately twelve countries.
Due to tunneled Internet connections they got connectivity with on-line web applications and e-mail, enabling staff chain of command co-operation, communication, long-term planning and, most important in a VIKING Exercise, co-operation and co-ordination with civilian counterparts. Conventional telephone systems, Video Telephone Conferences and a real time simulation system add realism to the Exercise.
VIKING 08 required many technical systems to support the Training Audience and the Exercise Control.
Ordinary telephones and fax machines were used over commercial (non-military) telephone lines. All Sites were also provided with Voice over Internet Protocol telephones. For Commanders and Exercise Control there were a Video Tele Conference system connecting all sites. Through a secure Exercise Portal distributed via the commercial Internet infrastructure the Training Audience and the Exercise Control had access to different services, such as e-mail in a closed environment where only the exercise participants are reachable and a Document Management System, where various documents can be posted, shared and stored. It was also possible to present news-tickers on the Exercise Portal (dedicated to present headlines or minor pieces of news, adding realism to the so-called Media Game within the Exercise) and dedicated links to, for example, Advanced Distributed Learning courses. These Advanced Distributed Learning courses are, primarily prior to the Command Post Exercise/Computer Assisted Exercise, available for pre Exercise training.
VIKING 08 was conducted as a combination of a “scripted exercise” and a “dynamic game”. To support the Exercise Control and the need to control hundreds of planned Incidents, and to follow up all the elements’ moves and measures, Controllers are provided with an Event/Incident Management System. Two important systems were distributed to all sites over a Virtual Private Network (so the connection between clients and server passes through an encrypted tunnel). Firstly a tool provides headquarters with a Common Operational Picture. Secondly, the Real Time Simulation System TYR, which also shares information from the Common Operational Picture tool, has a central role in a Computer Assisted Exercise like VIKING 08. TYR can handle approximately 4 000 entities in a simulation database representing military and police units, civilian elements such as humanitarian organization’s field offices, refugees, ambulances as well as the infrastructure with airfields, hospitals, harbors, etc.
These systems were distributed from Sweden to all non-Swedish Sites using the so called “Thin Client” technique. This means that all information was stored on computer servers in Sweden. Only mouse movements, keystrokes and screen updates are transmitted from/to the end user at the non-Swedish Sites. In VIKING 08 this technique was primarily used with the aim of reducing the need for Internet bandwidth. All other systems used the traditional “thick client” technique in client-server architecture networks which typically provides rich functionality independently of the central server.
Almost every day there were a number of different visits booked in for both the Enköping and Kungsängen sites. One of the visitors, Pierre Venter works as Military Attache at South Africa’s embassy in Stockholm and it was the first time he has visited a VIKING exercise. “South Africa is not taking part in the exercise but for me this is still a new and very interesting experience. It feels almost as if I am on another planet. I am also impressed by the technology and layout of the exercise and I can see that this is an important mechanism and an excellent tool which makes it possible to exercise these complex situations in a cost-effective way,” he says.