Reusable Interoperability Software Components in NATO C2 Systems
Copyright (c) 2025 Munk Sándor

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Abstract
An increasingly important condition for the successful operation of military organisations participating in today’s multinational operations and cooperating with governmental and other (non-governmental) organisations is the interoperability of their systems. The development of NATO military IT systems, implementation and maintenance of their interoperability capabilities is done according to the interoperability requirements of the Federated Mission Networking (FMN) framework. Although development based on reusable software components reduces development time and costs and increases the quality of interoperability capabilities, such components are not available for NATO command and control systems, nor are their issues addressed in military literature.
This publication validates the hypothesis that there are interoperability functions included in the NATO FMN requirements that can be implemented in the form of reusable software components, summarises the conceptual foundations of reusable interoperability components, explores their main types, comparing them with related NATO documents, and defines the purpose and main characteristics of each type.
Keywords:
How to Cite
References
ADatP-34 NATO Interoperability Standards and Profiles. Volume 1 Introduction. Edition N Version 2 (2023). Brussels: NATO Standardization Office.
ADatP-36 Friendly Force Tracking Systems (FFTS) Interoperability. Edition A Version 2 (2021). Brussels: NATO Standardization Office.
C3 Taxonomy Baseline 6 (2022). Norfolk: NATO Allied Command Transformation.
C3 Taxonomy Baseline 6. Taxonomy of C3 Core Services (2022). Norfolk: NATO Allied Command Transformation.
Electropedia: The World’s Online Electrotechnical Vocabulary (2024). Internal Electrotechnical Commission. Online: https://www.electropedia.org
Federated Mission Networking Spiral 5 Specification (2023). FMN Management Group.
HASSELBRING, Wilhelm (2002): Component-Based Software Engineering. In CHANG, S. K. (szerk.): Handbook of Software Engineering and Knowledge Engineering. Singapore: World Scientific Publishing, 289–305. Online: https://doi.org/10.1142/9789812389701_0013
ISO/IEC 2382:2015 Information technology — Vocabulary. Geneva: International Organization for Standardization – International Electrotechnical Commission.
ISO/IEC TR 10000-1:1998 Information Technology – Framework and Taxonomy of International Standardized Profiles. Part 1: General principles and documentation framework. Geneva: International Organization for Standardization–International Electrotechnical Commission.
MIP Information Model (MIM) Version 5.2 (2023) – Model Overview. Greding: Multilateral Interoperability Programme.
MUNK Sándor (2015): Reusable Interoperability Components in Military IT. Revista Academiei Forţelor Terrestre, (20)3, 373–380.
NATO Architecture Framework 4.0 (2018). Architecture Capability Team, NATO Consultation, Command and Control Board.
NOBACK, Matthias (2015): Principles of Package Design: Preparing your code for reuse. Lean Publishing.
OMG Unified Modeling Language, Version 2.5.1 (2017). Object Management Group.
PAI, Praseed – SHINE, Xavier (2017): .NET Design Patterns. Birmingham: Packt Publishing.
SZYPERSKI, Clemens – GRUNTZ, Dominik – MURER, Stephan (2002): Component Software: Beyond Object-Oriented Programming. 2nd Edition. London: Addison-Wesley.