Air and Space Interoperability Council

The Air and Space Interoperability Council (ASIC) is a formal five nation military organisation with a mandate to enhance coalition warfighting capability through air and space interoperability. Member nations are those within the Five Eyes community, consisting of representatives from their respective Air Forces, and also the United States Navy. Based in Washington DC, the Council's Management Committee oversees the execution of the Vision and Mission with the cooperation of experts from member nations' defence departments.

ASIC's primary outputs are documents focused upon increasing operational effectiveness through enhanced interoperability namely Air Standards, Advisory Publications and Information Publications. The organisation's working language is English.

History
ASIC, originally called the Air Standardization Coordination Committee (ASCC), was formed in 1948 to manage the Air Standardization agreement between Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States. This agreement was aimed at enabling those nations to conduct combined air operations and provide each other with certain essential services. In addition, it was agreed that the ASCC should promote the economies that would result from standardising air support and also encourage the exchange of research and development information. The ASCC was expanded to include the United States Navy in 1951, Australia in 1964 and New Zealand in 1965.

Expressed in the simplest of terms, the ASCC sought to promote interoperability, through standardisation, across the spectrum of expeditionary warfare and share relevant information and technology. This concept remains as valid today for ASIC as it was in 1948. The organisation went through transformation and rebranding in 2005 to reflect the current global strategic environment, moving the focus from standardisation to interoperability and with a renewed emphasis on coalition expeditionary operations, striving to ensure that there are no impediments to effective and efficient coalition air operations.

Vision
Fully integrated and interoperable coalition air and space forces.

The meanings of "integrated" and "interoperable" largely overlap, but it is important to capture both shades of meaning. "Integrated" describes a state in which ASIC member nations' forces operate as a seamless unit. "Interoperable" reflects ASIC’s primary focus; a state in which forces and equipment can operate together to accomplish the mission.

Mission
To identify and resolve current and future air and space interoperability challenges by leveraging collective expertise.

It is recognised that joint and combined activities extend beyond warfighting. ASIC aims to enhance current and future coalition war fighting capabilities and enable compatibility at the tactical and operational levels to allow the FVEY air forces to generate flexible, task-tailored forces which can operate more effectively across the full spectrum of operations whether in the short or long term.

Key Attributes
ASIC provides tools and knowledge to benefit commanders in national and coalition contexts and offers access to lessons identified and best practices which allow nations to align doctrines, concepts and procedures. ASIC also facilitates material loans through Test Project Agreements and provides wider awareness of national activities which are of benefit to other nations.
 * 1) Looking to the Future - Building interoperability into future capability.
 * 2) Measures of Interoperability - Developing valid measures of performance and establishing effective feedback loops.
 * 3) National Imperatives - Each member nation is committed to making significant and valued contributions to coalition operations.

Through ASIC, top level direction can be given to address particular FVEY interoperability issues and updates on interoperability are provided for Chiefs to note. ASIC is responsible to the Air Force Chiefs' through the National Directors who articulate national Joint and Single Service high-level priorities and plans and collectively direct the activities of the ASIC programme, supported by their respective National Programme Managers (NPMs).

Working Groups
To enable the timely execution of the ASIC Vision and Mission, standing working groups cover seven key warfighting functional areas.
 * 1) Agile Combat Support - embraces Engineering and Logistics, focussing in particular upon expeditionary operations
 * 2) Air Mobility - emphasises interoperability across the range of air transport roles including air movements, airlift, air-to-air refueling and airborne operations
 * 3) Aerospace Medicine Group - consists of the Surgeon General (or equivalent) for each member Air Force and encompasses all aspects of aviation medicine
 * 4) Command, Control and Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance - focuses on the seamless integration of all the elements inherent in the command chain
 * 5) Force Application - covers the employment of interoperable coalition air power to deliver kinetic and non-kinetic effects across the spectrum of operations
 * 6) Force Protection - focuses on expeditionary airfield security and includes a sub-group of experts in Chemical, Biological, Radiation and Nuclear environments
 * 7) Fuels - extends to Fuels, Oils, Lubricants and Gases and aims to standardise techniques and procedures in the testing, certification and acceptance of aviation fuels including alternative fuels.

Related Organisations
ASIC maintains close links with other interoperability fora, harmonising activities and working in collaboration on major projects. These include:


 * ABCA Armies
 * AUSCANNZUKUS (navies)
 * Combined Communications Electronics Board (communication-electronics)
 * Five Eyes (intelligence)
 * The Technical Cooperation Program (technology and science)
 * UKUSA Agreement (signal intelligence)

As three of the member nations also belong to NATO, cross functional networking with this organisation is ongoing and pivotal to the Council's execution.