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CWIX National Spotlight: Denmark [1]

['Paolo Giordano']

Date: 2024-06-11 14:55:13+00:00

To commemorate the 25th anniversary of CWIX, Allied Command Transformation is featuring stories of long-time participants – illustrating how CWIX has evolved and grown over time. On the ground at CWIX24, Commander Karsten Horn – National Lead for Denmark – follows the nation’s journey to becoming a key contributor at CWIX.

Commander Horn has been involved in CWIX for the last 15 years – first as an observer, then Maritime Focus area lead, and finally, the role he holds today: Danish National Lead. He says that while the emphasis of CWIX has remained on interoperability, the exercise has changed in size and scope. “The first time I participated, back when CWIX was called CWID, we had 350 participants for the execution – today, so many more have been brought to the table!”

Indeed, CWIX continues to grow on a year-by-year basis. On its 25th anniversary, CWIX24 is the largest-ever iteration of the exercise, with more than 2500 attendees and a benchmark year for national participation (42 participating Allies and partners). Another growth indicator is the increasing volume of command and control capabilities testing across 18 focus areas: CWIX24 features 490 capabilities, twenty percent more than last year. The changing security landscape requires NATO to be more connected, capable, and interoperable than ever before, and CWIX enables this mission. In turn, CWIX provides nations the benefit of ensuring their command and control systems are deployment-ready.

Denmark’s national involvement has also fluctuated. “Our focus on interoperability has stayed the same but some years, we have been bigger contingents than others. Recently, CWIX has increasingly become more prioritized in our development programs and I expect our footprint at CWIX will grow quite a bit.”

At CWIX24, Denmark will test seven national capabilities and participate across eight focus areas, touching on key CWIX tasks such as Multi-Domain Operations and Federated Mission Networking. In terms of significant capabilities, Commander Horn points to a Cross-Domain System that is operationally accredited to transfer data between different security domains, high to low and low to high. While Denmark does not currently hold any Focus Area leadership roles, the nation previously led the Maritime Focus Area for eight years. Denmark also hosted the CWIX24 Main Planning Conference, and will do the same in 2025 and 2027 – demonstrating the various ways nations support the CWIX cycle throughout the year.

On a personal level, Commander Horn says he “could write a book containing all the benefits of CWIX, and it is hard to pinpoint a single thing… But most of all, I would say that I most value the technical/operational knowledge I have gained; and the invaluable personal network I have built over 15 years.” This sentiment is echoed by seasoned experts and newcomers alike. Collaboration at CWIX allows participants to find practical solutions to technical interoperability issues of current national and NATO assets. At the same time, CWIX is a proving ground, enabling experts to identify innovative ideas in anticipation of future operations.

As for where CWIX will go in the next few years, Commander Horn hopes that “the overarching concept of CWIX will stay the same, just optimized for the future!” CWIX ensures that today’s NATO is indeed fit for tomorrow. This could mean retrofitting current systems to make them receptive to newer technology, or implementing novel capabilities. CWIX ensures that future military capabilities are interoperable by design, saving time, money and lives. In Commander Horn’s words, “One could say that at CWIX, we get things done!”

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[1] Url: https://www.act.nato.int/article/cwix-spotlight-denmark/

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