Thanks to ESG Elektroniksystem und Logistik, the European Union will be able to carry out operations in areas of conflict more effectively in the future. On behalf of the general secretariat of the European Union, the company is currently analysing the entire flow of information, which is required for such missions to be carried out. It is hoped that important information for developing future mission concepts and designing new control systems can be obtained from the results.
By February 2009, ESG will prepare an analysis of the actual situation of the total exchange of information for military and civilian EU operations. All levels will be investigated, from the political, strategic and operative, through to specific decisions during missions. Here, ESG is able to draw on two past projects it managed and implemented for the CIS project team of the European Defence Agency (EDA) between 2006 and 2008. In these projects, the requirements of the exchange of information and the processing and decision patterns of various organisations and nations on a military level were analysed.
Well over a hundred different documents on executing operations exist at the European level. These set out the formal sequences that must be observed. From the “discovery” of a trouble spot by the EU, assessing and deciding whether civilian or military means should be used, through to actual deployment.
ESG is analysing all of the relevant documents and recording mission experiences by means of interviews and workshops with the relevant people in charge. This includes actively involving the staff at Mont Valérien near Paris (EU OHQ), Stockholm (EU Battlegroup), Potsdam (EU OHQ) and at all relevant sites in Brussels in the analysis.
For structured analysis and to present the results, ESG is applying the architecture method in a military framework. It has used that particular method successfully in numerous projects, including in the Bundeswehr environment, for many years. The gathered database-supported results can be analysed according to various criteria and displayed in the form of graphs and reports. They serve as a valuable knowledge database.
ESG is conducting the study directly for the general secretariat of the Council of the European Union. The project team on the part of the client, led by the director of the EU Situation Centre, is made up of representatives of the European military staff, the directorates-general for External Relations and Administration, the European Defence Agency and “Civilian Planning and Conduct Capability”, which plans and leads the EU’s civilian overseas missions. The staff of ESG’s Koblenz subsidiary are responsible for executing the project.