MONS, Belgium – Supreme Allied Commander Transformation, General Andre Lanata, handed over the ‘Tasking, Exploitation, Assessment System (TEXAS)’ to General Tod D. Wolters, Supreme Allied Commander Europe, on Friday, September 18, 2020 during NATO’s 184th Military Committee in Chiefs of Defence Session.
TEXAS is a planning tool developed by Allied Command Transformation’s Innovation Hub that assigns and manages allied intelligence gathering, and allows commanders to task assets and get information quickly to make critical decisions on the battlefield.
On September 18, 2020, during NATO’s 184th Military Committee in Chiefs of Defence Session, General Andre Lanata, Supreme Allied Commander Transformation (SACT), hands over the certificate of the TEXAS system to General Tod D. Wolters, Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR).
The tool is designed for and will be used in the near future at NATO’s Allied Air Command in Ramstein, Germany. TEXAS replaces a makeshift solution that used commercial spreadsheet software to organise and manage intelligence requests, which was partly done manually. It will link the intelligence requirement and the collection management processes, reducing the risk of human error.
“We bring academia, best practices from industry, students, experts in different areas that can come together in one location and really come up with the best solutions possible that we can provide the alliance,” said Lieutenant Junior Grade Tami Hrivnak, who works in the Innovation Hub. “It’s not just about how we build software, but it’s changing the culture, changing the processes, making people look at things differently in order to support the alliance in a much faster, agile way,” he added.
TEXAS is a proof of concept for the Agile process, which is designed to innovate, develop, and deliver software solutions more quickly than in the past. It requires a different way of thinking about and collaborating on projects, including working off-site with the private sector, non-profits and academic experts outside NATO.