Norwegian Armed Forces ICT – selected recommendations

Information and communication technology (ICT) is crucial to support the Norwegian Armed Forces operations as well as the future development of the organization. The Armed Forces have recently implemented several strategic measures and have initiated large business programs to improve, acquire and use new ICT. This report intends to help the Armed Forces’ ICT organization by providing recommendations regarding the use of ICT. We base the recommendations on studies that have already been carried out by FFI, mainly during the period 2020–2022. The report covers these five areas: 1. Quality in the decision-making processes, where we have particularly looked at how to achieve conscious and targeted use of ICT within the organization. 2. Sourcing and strategic partnership, where we consider several factors that should be taken into account when considering sourcing of the Norwegian Armed Forces' ICT. 3. ICT competence, where we discuss the different types of digital competence and strategic ICT competence that the Armed Forces needs. 4. Appropriate level of security, where we present a value based hierarchy as a starting point for risk-based assessments. 5. Digital backbone, where we emphasize the importance of building a digital backbone. Further, we point out that for some key technologies in the backbone, such as satellite and mobile communications, separate strategies should be drawn up. The recommendations given in the report are relevant for decision-makers and personnel who work with strategic management of ICT.