THEATRE MISSILE DEFENCE AD HOC WORKING GROUP (NRC(TMD))

The Theatre Missile Defence Ad Hoc Working Group explores possibilities for cooperation in the area of theatre missile defence (TMD) between NATO and the Russian Federation

Its mandate is to develop and assess an Experimental Concept and an Experimental Concept of Operations (CONOPS); to explore and develop opportunities for intensified practical cooperation, including joint TMD training and exercises as well as the development of common terminology; and to conduct consultations and interoperability studies on respective TMD systems and system capabilities in order to analyse and evaluate levels of interoperability and the means to attain such interoperability.

Since 2004, the TMD Ad Hoc Working Group has conducted a series of joint NATO-Russia TMD Command Post Exercises (CPXs):
- the first of these exercises was conducted in March 2004 at the United States Joint National Integration Center;
- the second was organised in March 2005 at Airbase De Peel, in the Netherlands;
- a third exercise took place in October 2006 in the Research and Development Center of the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation.

The purpose of these exercises is to validate the Experimental Concept and associated Experimental Concept of Operations developed by the TMD Ad Hoc Working Group. The three CPXs conducted so far were computer-assisted, real time events focussing on command and control of forces. In November 2007 a fourth exercise hosted by Germany at the Simulation, Integration and Test Center in Ottobrunn near Munich will shift the focus to the planning aspects of TMD operations.

These exercises also provide a tool for verification of already available results of the interoperability studies as well as the basis for future interoperability enhancements and for developing mechanisms and procedures for coordinated operations in the area of Theatre Missile Defence.