On the 22nd of December, NATO Security Force Assistance Center of Excellence (NATO SFA COE) signed a Letter of Intent with Security and Freedom for Europe (SAFE).
SAFE is a not-for-profit association aiming at promoting high-impact activities in the rule of law, security and governance sector, with a focus on European countries, Western Balkans and the Middle East.
The purpose of the Letter of Intent is to identify fields of possible future collaboration regarding joint projects and other relevant activities.
In particular, the two entities agreed the:
- Promotion of participation by respective staff and leadership in joint projects and relevant activities, such as training, symposiums and events;
- Use of respective facilities for such activities;
- Support to and cooperation in editorial projects, reports and research papers.
During the visit, the NATO SFA COE Director, Col. Massimo Di Pietro, was informed of the main activities of SAFE that might be relevant for SFA related activities. In fact, the Director had the opportunity to try the VERTIgO platform: a Virtual Enhanced Reality for interoperable training of Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear (CBRN) military and civilian Operators”.
This project supports an integrated approach to conflicts and disaster relief by virtualization and simulation of CBRN defence training. Such kind of virtual enhanced reality training tools can be developed to support defence capacity building programs and enhance Local Forces effectiveness in numerous fields with reduced costs.
The NATO SFA COE research emphasize the value of technology by conducting SFA activities through virtual platforms for increasing the Local Forces capabilities and enhancing their partnership through remote advising. With this cooperation agreement NATO SFA COE and SAFE will integrate their respective competences in order to offer effective capacity building tools both for NATO and EU training missions.
