Combined Communications-Electronics Board

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The Combined Communications-Electronics Board (CCEB) is a five-nation joint military communications-electronics (C-E) organisation whose mission is the coordination of any military C-E matter that is referred to it by a member nation. The member nations of the CCEB are Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States. [1] The CCEB is the Sponsoring Authority for all Allied Communications Publications (ACPs). ACPs are raised and issued under common agreement between the member nations. [2] The CCEB Board consists of a senior Command, Control, Communications and Computer (C4) representative from each of the member nations.[ citation needed ]

Contents

The goal of the CCEB is to enhance the interoperability of communications systems among the military forces of the ABCA countries. The CCEB directs the activities of subordinate working groups charged with exchanging operational, procedural, and technical information in defined areas. CCEB products include Allied Communications Publications, Information Exchange Action Items, and CCEB publications. The U.S. CCEB representative is the Joint Chiefs of Staff Director for C4 Systems (J-6). The U.S. Army provides technical representatives to selected CCEB working groups at the request of the U.S. CCEB representative. [3]

The CCEB is a member to the Washington-based Multifora consisting of, but not limited to, ABCA Armies, AUSCANNZUKUS, and The Technical Cooperation Program. [4] In the U.S., the Military Command, Control, Communications, and Computers Executive Board (MC4EB) serves as the principal member to the CCEB. [5]

History

The Combined Communications Board (CCB) was established in 1941 based on high-level proposals for a structure to formulate combined communications-electronics policy. The Australia, New Zealand and Canada. The CCB grew to 33 sub-committees established to consider all communication specialist areas. The CCB produced all combined communications-electronics publications used by the member nations. It also produced more than two million additional copies, in 12 languages, for use by CCB allies. CCB efforts continued after the war until 14 October 1949 when it was reduced in size and commitment with the formation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and dissolution of the Combined Chiefs of Staff organization. The United Kingdom Joint Communications Staff, Washington, and the United States Joint Communications-Electronics Committee continued to meet on a regular basis as the US-UK Joint Communications-Electronics Committee with representatives of Australia, Canada and New Zealand attending as appropriate. [6]

Canada became a full CCB member in 1951, Australia in 1969, and finally New Zealand in 1972 when the organization was renamed the Combined Communications-Electronics Board (CCEB). In 1986 the CCEB broadened its scope to include communication and information systems in support of command and control. CCEB interoperability activities have always been coordinated with NATO and the US Military Communications Electronics Board (MCEB). Increased focus on coalition C4 interoperability to maximize coalition warfighter effectiveness led to a close relationship with the Multinational Interoperability Council (MIC). Under a Statement of Cooperation the MIC supports the CCEB as the lead coordinator for multinational C4 interoperability, and the CCEB supports the MIC in its role of leading the development of Joint/Combined doctrine and defining Warfighter C4 requirements. [6]

Timeline of official names and member countries
YearNameMember NationsNotes
1942Combined Communications BoardUK, USAFormed during World War II
1951CAN, UK, USACanada joins as a full member
1951AUS, CAN, UK, USAAustralia joins as a full member
1972Combined Communications-Electronics BoardAUS, CAN, NZL, UK, USANew Zealand joins as a full member

Allied Communications Publications

The CCEB develops and publishes the communications procedures for use in computer messaging, radiotelephony, radiotelegraph, radioteletype (RATT), air-to-ground signalling (panel signalling), and other forms of communications used by the armed forces of the five member countries.

Not all ACPs are managed by the CCEB, some are managed by the NATO Standardization Office.

Allied Communication Procedures

A subset of the CCEB's ACP documents constitutes the communication procedures for the CCEB member nations (all of whom have English as their official language) and as the basis for communication procedures of all NATO members, who will develop procedures documents in their local languages. The most well-known of these, especially outside of military organizations, is ACP 125: Communications Instructions—Radiotelephony Procedures.

See also

Related Research Articles

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Defense Information Systems Agency United States Department of Defense combat support agency

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NATO phonetic alphabet Most widely used spelling alphabet

The International Radiotelephony Spelling Alphabet, commonly known as the NATO phonetic alphabet, NATO spelling alphabet, ICAO phonetic alphabet or ICAO spelling alphabet, is the most widely used radiotelephone spelling alphabet. The ITU phonetic alphabet and figure code is a rarely used variant that differs in the code words for digits.

In NATO, a Standardization Agreement defines processes, procedures, terms, and conditions for common military or technical procedures or equipment between the member countries of the alliance. Each NATO state ratifies a STANAG and implements it within their own military. The purpose is to provide common operational and administrative procedures and logistics, so one member nation's military may use the stores and support of another member's military. STANAGs also form the basis for technical interoperability between a wide variety of communication and information systems (CIS) essential for NATO and Allied operations. The Allied Data Publication 34 (ADatP-34) NATO Interoperability Standards and Profiles which is covered by STANAG 5524, maintains a catalogue of relevant information and communication technology standards.

Allied military phonetic spelling alphabets

The Allied military phonetic spelling alphabets prescribed the words that are used to represent each letter of the alphabet, when spelling other words out loud, letter-by-letter, and how the spelling words should be pronounced for use by the Allies of World War II. They are not a "phonetic alphabet" in the sense in which that term is used in phonetics, i.e. they are not a system for transcribing speech sounds.

A signal strength and readability report is a standardized format for reporting the strength of the radio signal and the readability (quality) of the radiotelephone (voice) or radiotelegraph signal transmitted by another station as received at the reporting station's location and by their radio station equipment. These report formats are usually designed for only one communications mode or the other, although a few are used for both telegraph and voice communications. All but one of these signal report formats involve the transmission of numbers.

Radiotelephony procedure includes various techniques used to clarify, simplify and standardize spoken communications over two-way radios, in use by the armed forces, in civil aviation, police and fire dispatching systems, citizens' band radio (CB), and amateur radio.

ABCANZ Armies

ABCANZ Armies is a program aimed at optimizing interoperability and standardization of training and equipment between the armies of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States, plus the United States Marine Corps and the Royal Marines. Established in 1947 as a means to capitalize on close cooperation between the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada during World War II, the program grew to include Australia and New Zealand.

Procedure words or prowords are words or phrases limited to radio telephone procedure used to facilitate communication by conveying information in a condensed standard verbal format. Prowords are voice versions of the much older prosigns for Morse code first developed in the 1860s for Morse telegraphy, and their meaning is identical. The NATO communications manual ACP-125 contains the most formal and perhaps earliest modern (post-WW-II) glossary of procedure words, but its definitions have been adopted by many other organizations, including the United Nations Development Programme, the U.S. Coast Guard, the Rhode Island Department of Emergency Management, Civil Air Patrol, Military Auxiliary Radio System, and others.

The Technical Cooperation Program (TTCP) is a long-standing international organisation concerned with cooperation on defence science and technology matters, including national security and civil defence. Its membership comprises Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom (UK) and the United States (US).

The Combined Federated Battle Laboratories Network (CFBLNet) is a laboratory environment which utilizes a distributed Wide Area Network (WAN) as the vehicle to simulate training environments and to de-risk command and control (C2) and intelligence capabilities by conducting Research and Development, Training, Trials and Assessment (RDTT&A) on command, control, communication, computer, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (C4ISR) initiatives and training events. Since 2001, membership has been established and represented by three core parties: the U.S. Joint Staff, the Combined Communications and Electronics Board, and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Besides the core parties to the CFBLNet Technical Arrangement, four nations have become Guest Mission Partners under rules contained in CFBLNet governance documentation referred to as Publication 1.

AUSCANNZUKUS is an abbreviation for the naval Command, Control, Communications and Computers (C4) interoperability organization involving the Anglosphere nations of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States. It is also used as security caveat in the UKUSA Community, where it is also known as "Five Eyes."

The Air Force Interoperability Council or AFIC is an organisation tasked with enhancing coalition military aviation amongst the "Five Eyes" countries, which consist of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and United States. AFIC consists of representatives from the Royal Air Force (RAF), Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF), Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF), Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF), United States Air Force (USAF) and the United States Navy (USN). The organisation has a permanent management committee based in Washington DC.

APRS Calling is a manual procedure for calling stations on the Automatic Packet Reporting System (APRS) to initiate communications on another frequency, or possibly by other means. It is inspired by Digital Selective Calling, a part of the Global Maritime Distress Safety System. It also builds on existing digital procedures inherited from morse code and radioteletype operation. ITU Q codes are used in conjunction with APRS text messages to implement APRS calling. APRS calling is intended to complement monitoring voice calling frequencies.

A plain-language radio check is the means of requesting and giving a signal strength and readability report for radiotelephony (voice) communications, and is the direct equivalent to the QSA and QRK code used to give the same report in radiotelegraph communications. SINPEMFO code is the voice signal reporting format developed by the ITU in 1959, but sees little use outside of shortwave listeners.

The QSA code and QRK code are interrelated and complementary signal reporting codes for use in wireless telegraphy. An enhanced format, SINPO code, was published in the ITU Radio Regulations, Geneva, 1959, but is longer and unwieldy for use in the fast pace of Morse code communications.

ACP 125 is the short name for Allied Communications Publication 125: Communications Instructions—Radiotelephone Procedures, developed and published by the Combined Communications Electronics Board, for use by the Five Eyes nations and the rest of NATO. According to the latest version,

"The aim of ACP 125 is to prescribe the voice procedure for use by the armed forces of Allied nations on secure and non-secure tactical voice nets. Its purpose is to provide a standardized way of passing speech and data traffic as securely as possible consistent with accuracy, speed and the needs of command and control."

Allied Communication Procedures is the set of manuals and supplements published by the Combined Communications Electronics Board that prescribe the methods and standards to be used while conducting visual, audible, radiotelegraph, and radiotelephone communications within NATO member nations. These procedures relate to procedure words, radiotelephony procedure, Allied Military phonetic spelling alphabets, plain language radio checks, the 16-line message format (radiogram), and others.

Allied Communications Publications are documents developed by the Combined Communications-Electronics Board and NATO, which define the procedures for communicating in computer messaging, radiotelephony, radiotelegraph, radioteletype (RATT), air-to-ground signalling, and other forms of communications used by the armed forces of the five CCEB member countries and/or NATO.

NATO Science and Technology Organization

The NATO Science and Technology Organization (STO) is the primary NATO organization for Defence Science and Technology. Its mission is to maintain NATO's scientific and technological advantage by generating, sharing and utilizing advanced scientific knowledge, technological developments and innovation to support the Alliance's core tasks.

References

  1. ↑ "DoD PKI COMBINED COMMUNICATIONS ELECTRONICS BOARD (CCEB) / PARTNER INTEROPERABILITY TESTING". Archived from the original on 2018-10-21. Retrieved 2018-04-25.
  2. ↑ "ACP 194: Policy for the Coordination of Military Radio Frequency Allocations and Assignments Between Cooperating Nations" (PDF). Retrieved 2018-04-25.
  3. ↑ Us Department Of Defense. AR 34-1 07/10/2015 MULTINATIONAL FORCE INTEROPERABILITY , Survival Ebooks. Delene Kvasnicka www.survivalebooks.com.
  4. ↑ "Defense Standardization Program: International Standardization Documents".
  5. ↑ "Military Command, Control, Communications, and Computers Executive Board, 23 Apr 2014".
  6. 1 2 Combined Communications-Electronics Board: Publication 1: Organisation, Roles and Responsibilities, dated 12 May 2017
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