site.btaGovernment Moves for Ratification Bulgaria-SHAPE Garrison Support Agreement for Deployable Communications Module

Government Moves for Ratification Bulgaria-SHAPE Garrison Support Agreement for Deployable Communications Module

Sofia, March 15 (BTA) - Bulgarian Defence Minister Nikolay
Nenchev on Saturday clarified to journalists the draft of an Act
 to Ratify the Garrison Support Agreement (GSA) between Bulgaria
 and the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE) for
basic maintenance of a Deployable Communications Module (DCM),
Nenchev's Ministry said in a press release. The bill was
approved by the Council of Ministers on March 11 and was
submitted to Parliament on March 13.

"The module is basically designed to provide communication and
information support to Allied headquarters at operational level
when they participate in missions, operations, exercises and
crises," Nenchev explained. It is a command and control element
under the commander of Allied Command Operations. The Defence
Minister recalled that in June 2009 the NATO Military Committee
and, subsequently, the North Atlantic Council, adopted a
decision on the formation in Bulgaria of a NATO national mobile
deployable communications module (DCM-F) as part of the
Communication and Information Systems (CIS) Group's 2nd Signals
Battalion based in Grazzanise, Italy.

Building the infrastructure needed for this module is a project
under the NATO Security Investment Programme. The implementation
 of this project on Bulgaria's territory was approved by Council
 of Ministers Decision of August 29, 2012, and its stationing
within the compound of the army base in the Village of Gorna
Malina (31 km Northeast of Sofia) was ordered by a Council of
Ministers Decision of May 5, 2011.

One of Bulgaria's national responsibilities is to staff the
national DCM module with two commissioned officers and 55
non-commissioned officers and soldiers. Bulgaria has assumed a
commitment to set up DCM-F and achieve Initial Operational
Capabilities at the end of 2014 and Full Operational
Capabilities in 2017, the Ministry said.

The DCM personnel has undergone accelerated priority training at
 the NATO CIS School in Latina, Italy, and attended specialized
courses in the DCM-E deployment area in Bucharest, Romania. The
main effort now targets preparing the module for the provision
of CIS support to the headquarters of Operation Resolute Support
 in Kabul, Afghanistan, between July 2015 and January 2016.