SAP Paves Way for NATO’s Next-Generation Command and Control Systems

LILLEHAMMER, Norway - July 26, 2005 - SAP AG (NYSE: SAP) today announced a ground-breaking software deployment advancing NATO’s efforts to improve “net-centric” military capabilities. During the Coalition Warrior Interoperability Demonstration (CWID), an exercise conducted by Allied Command Transformation, SAP demonstrated the reliability of the SAP® for Defense & Security solution to transfer mission-critical information between enterprise resource planning (ERP) and command and control systems. Among 18 nations and agencies actively participating in the exercise, SAP’s demonstration marks the first contribution supporting the program’s objective of “Integrated Logistics.”

Integration technology as such delivered by SAP is indispensable in timely transferring the necessary information for deploying, operating and supporting military forces in net-centric warfare – strategies and tactics used by networked forces to gain decisive advantage. The applications create a distributed, but logically integrated network that enables soldiers and commanders to carry out their tasks seamlessly whether working in online mode via secure Internet and satellite connections or temporarily disconnected from the command center. SAP delivers solutions to meet the unique requirements of defense organizations around the world, including 14 NATO member countries.

“The participation of SAP as the first ERP provider in CWID clearly demonstrates the benefits our military forces can achieve by seamlessly integrating the command and control systems with the resource information,” said Lieutenant General Ulrich Wolf, Director of NATO CIS Services Agency (NCSA). “Total resource visibility is crucial for NATO operations and the test results reveal that we can support our forces with critical information dedicated to their mission.”

Conducted in Lillehammer, Norway, the tests were dedicated to validate and improve the interoperability of NATO, national and partner command and control (C2) systems. With SAP’s integrated solution, data could be transferred automatically among an intermittently connected offshore frigate, several land-based C2 systems and the central SAP instance at the command center, greatly increasing operation effectiveness and efficiency. The results successfully demonstrated:

1. Organizational and resource data based on the structure of NATO Response Forces (NRF 7 and 8) could be uploaded to different C2 information systems (C2IS) and further be updated based on the NATO ADatP-3 data transfer standard.
2. Information necessary to create a detailed deployment plan within the NATO Allied Deployment and Movement System (ADAMS) could be transferred successfully.
3. Logistic Assistance Requests from C2IS could be processed within the SAP system to initiate appropriate follow-on activities such as delivery of materiel, providing confirmation and corresponding information back to the requestor.
4. Air Tasking Orders (ATO) formatted according to ICC could be received by the SAP system and further tasks—for example, providing the required aircraft with the correct configuration—could be executed using SAP’s functionality in the area of line maintenance.