The 16th annual NATO Operations Research and Analysis (OR&A) Conference was held in Copenhagen, Denmark this month, bringing together approximately 200 analysts, scientists, military personnel and other professionals from 29 NATO Nations and partner countries. The conference, co-organised by NATO Headquarters Supreme Allied Command Transformation (HQ SACT) and the NATO Science and Technology Organization (STO), was held on 17-19 October 2022 at the Royal Danish Military Academy.
Held under the theme of “New Ideas, Old Realities,” this year’s conference featured a mix of presentations and training sessions, as well as a wargame demonstration. The presentations focused on new analytical methods and best practice in analysis for tackling various challenges facing NATO.
Rear Admiral Henrik Ryberg, Chief of the Danish Defence College, welcomes participants at the 16th NATO OR&A Conference 2022
The event opened with a welcome address from Rear Admiral Henrik Ryberg, Chief of the Danish Defence College. Dr Bryan Wells, NATO Chief Scientist, then provided details on the wider context of NATO’s current priorities. “They match very well the priorities of the NATO OR&A community, and the OR&A community is, in turn, strongly placed to contribute to NATO’s high-level thinking”, Dr Wells said, adding that the conference’s theme “exactly sums up the situation” facing the Alliance today.
In her opening keynote, Dr Susanne Wirwille of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory covered both an ongoing and future challenge when discussing the need for the Alliance to develop a comprehensive space deterrence framework. Such a framework would impose costs against adversary aggression while ensuring NATO Members’ and partners’ continued access to, and use of, space. Reflecting on a method that has guided the Alliance through past challenges, Dr Wirwille noted, “This is an alliance of nations; when we speak and act in concert, we can deter aggression.”
The programme concluded with a keynote on cyber threats from Dr David Alberts, Cyber Analytics Lead Support at the Institute for Defense Analyses, who discussed the analysis challenges associated with cyber threats. “We’ve become vulnerable to any loss of cyber-enabled capabilities,” he said, adding that “the operations research community would be the perfect place to talk about, focus on and conduct cyber-related analysis.”
Mr Mark Rempel receives the Best Paper Award from Conference Co-Chair Ms Sue Collins (HQ SACT)
Following the final keynote, the Conference Co-Chair, Ms Sue Collins of HQ SACT, presented the award for best paper to Mr Mark Rempel and Mr Nicholi Shiell for their work on “Using Reinforcement Learning to Provide Decision Support in Multi-Domain Mass-Evacuation Operations”.
Next year’s OR&A Conference will be held at the Johns Hopkins University in Laurel, Maryland (USA) from 30 October-01 November 2023. Further information about the conference, including a call for papers, will be distributed in spring 2023. |