An Cosantóir

An Cosantóir March / April 2025 www.military.ie/magazine www.military JOINT COMMON OPERATIONAL PICTURE – DELIVERING NETWORK ENABLED OPERATIONS www.military 16 | O ver the past ten years, the Defence Forces has been digitally transforming our conduct of operations, by harnessing technology to enhance our capability through a shared situation awareness across our full spectrum of operations. This has been achieved through the CIS led Joint Common Operational Picture ( JCOP) programme connecting sensors, effectors and decision makers together on a common C5IS platform sharing information in near real- time to significantly increase the decision making cycle and enable faster operational response through collective understanding of active operations. The JCOP provides a secure common operational picture, and secure tactical chat between all tactical elements of the Defence Forces and their coordinating operations centres. The Joint Operations Centre ( JOC) coordinates all joint operations both on-island and overseas and is the hub where all information across the JCOP merges. The key components of the JCOP are a common secure network (the CIS Network) ubiquitous across the force, and a common situation awareness system called 'SitaWare HQ' provided by the Danish company Systematic. Although this platform was originally focused on the land domain, the DF recognised the potential of a common technology platform across the force, to create a JCOP and were amongst the first to use SitaWare in the maritime domain to deliver the Naval Service's Recognised Maritime Picture (RMP). The RMP has been a critical enabler to build maritime domain awareness in support of maritime defence and security operations (MDSO) in Ireland's vast maritime area of operations of approximately one million square kilometres. In the air domain, SitaWare 'in flight' was captured as a requirement for the next generation of Air Corps aircraft and both the ISTAR PC12 aircraft and C295 MPRA aircraft are SitaWare enabled, which is a first for this technology platform attracting much international attention. In essence, the sensors onboard these aircraft supported by the Air Corps mission support facility, can be shared in near real-time with the JOC, Naval Service ships, the naval operations centre, the Army Ranger Wing, and any other decision maker or tactical element involved in a specific operation. During regular day-to-day operations such as MDSO in the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) or peace support operations overseas, the JCOP been a force multiplier where a combined shared awareness delivers a far great effect than the sum of our parts. For specific focused operations, the JCOP ensures the right information is presented to the right decision maker or effector and at the right time. This network-enabled capability was to the fore during Operation Piano, a joint maritime interdiction operation of the 'MV Matthew'. The JCOP was used to track the suspect vessels on the RMP, coordinate surveillance using NS ships and AC MPRAs, and then orchestrate a boarding operation by the Army Ranger Wing by helicopter, during which the PC12 ISTAR aircraft streamed video of the boarding to the JOC in near real-time. Operation Piano resulted in the largest seizure of narcotics in the history of the State. 1 Command, control, communications, computers, cyber, information system 2 Intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition and reconnaissance 3 Maritime patrol reconnaissance aircraft ARTICLE BY CDR BRIAN MATHEWS, DF JCOP PROGRAMME COORDINATOR PHOTOS PROVIDED BY CDR MATHEWS

• Cover