From Whitehall to Warsaw: Interoperability at the Tactical Edge
Interoperability has become the decisive factor in coalition readiness and preparedness. From Ukraine’s digitalised frontlines to NATO command centres, speed and trust now define deterrence.
Maintaining Tempo Across Modern Battlefields
Unified deterrence has always relied on unity of purpose. But in the modern operating environment, purpose alone is not enough. The challenge today is unity of tempo — the ability of allied and coalition forces to see, decide, and act together across domains, networks, and national boundaries.
The war in Ukraine has made this reality impossible to ignore. It is the first truly hybrid and digitalised conflict, where the speed of communication and coordination often determines survival. Mobile applications now replace manual logs. Agile development and rapid procurement cycles allow new software to reach the front within days, not months. Civilian standards, open technologies, and commercial satellites have become the connective tissue of the modern battlespace.
For defence organisations across Europe and beyond, these lessons are immediate. They highlight a simple truth: coalition cohesion now depends on digital interoperability at every level. From strategic headquarters in Whitehall and Brussels to forward units in Warsaw or Tallinn, joint forces must share intelligence, coordinate actions, and maintain tempo under conditions that are degraded, contested, or denied. Every second gained through integration strengthens deterrence; every delay risks it.
Interoperability has moved from being a policy ambition to an operational necessity. The question is no longer whether partners can connect their systems in principle, but whether they can act as one in practice — under pressure, and in real time.
Why Allied Forces Struggle to Connect at Speed
Across allied nations, political and strategic alignment is strong. Frameworks, doctrines, and standards have never been more consistent. Yet at the tactical edge, achieving full interoperability remains a shared challenge.
National systems differ in architecture, security classification, and data standards. Connectivity still depends on commercial infrastructure that may not withstand disruption. Decision loops are often slowed by incompatible workflows, language barriers, and trust gaps between automated and human processes. As Col. Mietta Groeneveld noted at TechNet Europe, “multi-domain operations are not about buzzwords; they are about practical changes in headquarters and partnerships.” That practicality is where work remains to be done.
Synchronising across domains demands more than shared policy. It requires live data feeds that can be trusted across commands, automation that personnel are trained to rely on, and collaboration environments that operate securely even when bandwidth collapses. Interoperability is not only about connecting systems; it is about aligning decisions.
Ukraine’s experience shows what happens when this is achieved. When national teams can integrate live data, apply AI-driven analytics, and coordinate decisions in near real time, they create a distributed, resilient network that sustains tempo even under attack. That is the model allied and partner forces must now adopt at scale — one where technology, process, and trust combine to close the gap between headquarters and the field.
From Policy to Practice: Making Allied Interoperability Real
Across the alliance, the vision for interoperability is clear: connect every domain, empower every level of command, and enable trusted collaboration from headquarters to the tactical edge.
Turning that vision into daily practice, however, demands more than frameworks and memoranda. It requires federated technology, repeatable processes, and people trained to operate confidently within both.
The next phase of allied digital transformation must focus on three priorities: integration, sovereignty, and tempo.
Integration ensures that national systems, applications, and sensors can exchange trusted data across domains without compromising control. This means adopting shared standards but also building flexible bridges between architectures that were never designed to interoperate. Seamless coordination between air, land, sea, cyber, and space domains depends on it.
Sovereignty ensures that each nation retains control of its data, workflows, and infrastructure. In practice, this means secure, sovereign collaboration environments that allow allies to work together while keeping national logs and intelligence within their own boundaries. True interoperability cannot come at the cost of independence, and independence cannot come at the cost of tempo.
Tempo brings the two together. Forces must not only connect; they must decide and act faster than the threats they face. That requires collaboration platforms that remain operational in degraded conditions, support low-bandwidth communications, and synchronise decisions automatically when connectivity returns. AI can support this tempo by filtering signals from noise, proposing options, and accelerating coordination while leaving judgment firmly in human hands.
This is where policy becomes practice. When interoperability is designed into the systems, workflows, and habits of allied operations, coalition networks gain resilience by design. Decisions become faster, information becomes trusted, and the alliance moves as one, even at the edge.
Building Resilience Through Secure Interoperability
True interoperability is not just a technical milestone; it is the foundation of operational resilience. When coalition systems, workflows, and teams operate as one network of trust, resilience becomes a shared capability rather than an individual strength.
Resilience in this context means more than recovering from disruption. It means continuing the mission through it. To achieve this, allies must design collaboration platforms and digital infrastructures that assume contested conditions from the start. Every link, node, and user must operate within a Zero Trust model, where verification is continuous and compromise is contained before it spreads.
AI and automation now play a crucial role in this ecosystem. They help detect anomalies faster, prioritise threats, and support commanders in maintaining situational awareness under pressure. Yet resilience depends on balance. Machines can process information at scale, but it is human judgment that aligns decisions with intent, context, and strategy.
For NATO and allied partners, this combination of sovereign technology, Zero Trust frameworks, and human-machine collaboration defines the new standard for readiness. It ensures that command and control can endure even in disconnected or degraded environments, that classified data remains within national boundaries, and that coalition tempo is maintained when it matters most.
Interoperability is not only about connecting systems; it is about building confidence. When nations can act together securely and at speed, deterrence is strengthened and unity becomes a force multiplier.
The Strategic Takeaway: Interoperability as the Foundation of Readiness and Deterrence
Interoperability is no longer an ambition; it is the precondition for collective readiness. The speed and cohesion with which allies can connect, share, and act now define deterrence as much as any capability or posture.
Every modern conflict reinforces the same lesson: no nation can maintain operational advantage alone. The ability to coordinate across domains, languages, and systems under pressure is what turns a collection of forces into a unified defence.
As NATO and allied partners look ahead to the next decade, success will depend on how quickly interoperability moves from aspiration to architecture — built into every platform, workflow, and decision loop. When collaboration is sovereign, secure, and persistent from headquarters to the tactical edge, the alliance sustains its tempo and strengthens its deterrence by action, not declaration. The future of readiness will belong to those who can act together, faster than their adversaries, and with complete trust in the systems that connect them. Now is the time for allied and partner nations to accelerate interoperability, transforming unified deterrence from ambition to capability.
