Meanwhile, competition between civil and military applications and users in an already congested RS is intensifying by the day. This puts increased pressure on the Armed Forces to use the finite resource of RS in the most efficient way.
Acknowledging that a more coherent, common European approach towards preserving and expanding the militaries’ RS is essential, EDA Member States agreed to jointly acquire a RS management tool to support EU CSDP missions and operations as one important element of this approach.
EDA is currently supporting this acquisition process and has prepared the ground for making available the NATO HQ-owned RS management tool SMIROnline 2 (Spectrum Management Information Repository Online) to all EU Member States as well as to the entities in charge of CSDP missions and operations.
This tool, which is expected to be available by the end of 2021, is composed of a central database where all frequency assignments (e.g., within a CSDP mission or operation), interference reports as well as geographical and equipment technical details can be stored. In addition, the tool allows for an automated data exchange between users and provides an engineering capacity (based on the existing assignments, respecting frequency propagation as well as terrain path profiles) to ensure an efficient and interference-free use of the RS.
Thanks to this tool, CSDP mission and operation commanders will soon have the ability to collate all RS requirements and provide their troops in the field with the necessary interference-free access to the RS.