Home  /   News  /  2023  /  CLOSING REMARKS FOR STEADFAST COBALT 2023 EXERCISE

MONS, Belgium – Major General Frank Schlӧsser, Commander NATO CIS Group, announced the successful closure of Exercise STEADFAST COBALT 2023 (STCO23) on Friday, May 5, 2023.  

Approximately 1000 participants took part in Exercise STCO23 and improved their interoperability to efficiently contribute to NRF24 and Joint Command and Control Capability 2024 (JC2C24). During the Exercise, the technical solution provided through the Command, Control, Communications, Computers (C4) Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) (C4ISR) Architecture was verified.

Major General Schlӧsser underlined the fact that over 90% of planned tests were finalized. Commander highlighted that not only the validation of the C4ISR services required to support the NRF24 and JC2C24 mission was executed, but also a Technical Evaluation was conducted. The importance of the Exercise STEADFAST COBALT 23 for NATO and NRF was proven. 

VTC - STCO23 Exercise, Mons, Belgium, May 5, 2023, online participants.

Major General Schlӧsser emphasised that the enhanced cyber planning and execution maturity, in line with NATO’s cyber domain maturity, allowed to properly identify interoperability gaps, resolve multiple IT issues and integrate lessons learned immediately into the exercise. 

VTC - STCO23 Exercise, Mons, Belgium, May 5, 2023, Major General Frank Schlӧsser, COM NCISG.

Concluding, Major General Schlӧsser said: 

NATO assessed our readiness capability though completing 7000 operational evaluations, while working with the operational community, which can only be done through the dedicated efforts of each NRF unit, making NATO’s collective defence stronger together.