The NATO Annual Conference on the Operational Capability Assessment Program (OCC E&F) is being held from October 13 to 15 this year at the Hills Hotel in Sarajevo.
The annual conference is hosted by the Armed Forces of Bosnia and Herzegovina (AFBiH), with the participation of representatives of NATO commands led by NATO’s Supreme Allied Command Europe (SHAPE), as well as representatives of 28 partner countries.
The conference was opened by the Deputy Chief of the Joint Staff of the AF BiH for Operations, Major General Ivica Jerkic, who stressed the importance of the OCC E&F program as a successful cooperation mechanism and framework for conducting joint exercises and training with NATO members, where partner countries have the opportunity to build military capabilities mutual trust.
The aim of the conference is to exchange information on the results achieved within the OCC E&F program and tools that support the evaluation of units and activities of each of the partner countries, and coordination of upcoming activities under the program.
The NATO Operational Capabilities Program is a mechanism of the Partnership for Peace Program through which training and assessment of pre-declared units according to NATO standards is performed.
The Armed Forces of Bosnia and Herzegovina have been implementing the OCC E&F program since 2011 and by 2018, 11 AFBiH units have been successfully certified by NATO assessors as combat-ready, and since 2018, the AFBiH has been in the process of assessing and certifying units. battalion levels (INF-L-BNG), which is scheduled to complete a four-year assessment cycle in 2022.
