In Hoyo de Manzanares - Madrid
10 March 2025.- From 4 to 6 March, the Counter-Improvised Explosive Devices - Centre of Excellence organized the first Combined Annual Discipline Conference (CADC) at its facilities in Hoyo de Manzanares, Madrid.
Every year, NATO defines the education, training, exercises and evaluation (ETEE) disciplines relevant for the Alliance and its objectives.
Every ETEE discipline has two designated authorities who implement the tasks developed by NATO Global Programming.
One of them is the Requirement Authority (RA), who is in charge of defining the ETEE requirements of the Alliance in a specific discipline. The RA usually belongs to the Allied Command Operations (ACO).
The other authority is the Department Head (DH), who is in charge of searching for, coordinating and, if necessary, creating training solutions for the demanded requirements. This DH usually belongs to the Allied Command Transformation (ACT) or to the Centres of Excellence (COEs).
Organizing this Annual Discipline Conference is one of the responsibilities of the C-IED COE director, as C-IED DH, supporting NATO Global Programming, together with RA and ACT.
In this occasion, the celebration of the C-IED Annual Discipline Conference was also used as an opportunity to celebrate the conferences related to MILENG and ENSEC disciplines. Due to the success of the celebration, this format will most likely be repeated in the following ADCs of each of these three disciplines.
For three days, 32 experts from 17 nations have reviewed the latest NATO training operational updates and have suggested possible solutions, both for individual and collective training.
The main objective was to make sure that the training programmes are aligned with the evolution of the needs and with the available means and technology. Among the attendees, the event counted on the presence of representatives of the NATO Supreme Headquarter Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE), the Supreme Allied Command Transformation Headquarter (SACT HQ), the Spanish Joint Staff, the Joint Force Command (JFC) Brunssum, other Centres of Excellence and members of the Community of Interest of the three disciplines.
Regarding the C-IED fight, the director of the C-IED COE, colonel Javier Corbacho Margallo, highlighted the evolution of the strategic scenario and the need for the Alliance to develop new requirements to gain knowledge on the essential capacities to fight the IED system.
Among the main challenges identified, he mentioned the 3D-printing, the use of encrypted communication, the combination of physical and cyber threats, as well as the growing collaboration between insurgent and terrorist groups to develop new tactics, techniques and procedures (TTPs).