Launch of the Intelligence Fusion Centre
in support of NATO

SHAPE, Belgium - NATO's expeditionary posture was enhanced last month when the Military Committee (MC) endorsed the new Intelligence Fusion Centre (IFC) concept.

The IFC in support of NATO represents another advance in capabilities resulting from the Prague Capabilities Commitments agreed by NATO heads of state and government at the Prague Summit in 2002. The Defence Ministers, at their informal meeting in Colorado Springs in October 2003 also highlighted the need for this capability.

This important key enabler will facilitate the actionable, timely and accurate distribution of military intelligence and information, which is an essential requirement to support the planning and execution of NATO operations and especially NATO Response Force operations. As such it will be another important part of NATO's transformation to respond to the new security challenges of the 21st century.

The IFC in support of NATO is expected to operate in 2006. The United States will be the framework nation for this multinational organization, complementary to the current NATO intelligence structure. It will increase significantly NATO’s intelligence analysis capability and will be designed to provide full spectrum of military production and analysis at the operational level. All NATO nations have been invited to participate.

For practical reasons the IFC will be collocated with the Joint Analysis Centre (JAC) at Molesworth UK, as infrastructure and logistic support required is already there and available.