Leadership support school: traditional day with new partnership

The Command Support School of the Austrian Armed Forces recently celebrated its Tradition Day at the Starhemberg Barracks in Vienna. The partnership with the Austrian Military Radio Society (AMRS) was also ceremoniously sealed.

Ceremony

The commander of the Austrian cyber and information forces and head of Directorate 6, Major General Hermann Kaponig, and the commander of the Command Support School, Colonel Franz Sitzwohl (-> Interview with Militär Aktuell: “We are in the middle of an information war”), welcomed numerous guests to the Starhemberg barracks on Tradition Day. Among them were representatives from politics, the clergy and comrades from the earliest days of the school, when it was still purely dedicated to telecommunications systems.

Developed from the Telegraph Troop School, which was founded in 1957, the Command Support School offers a broad portfolio ranging from the correct use of field cables to cyber defense – skills that are in high demand today, as the topics in the ceremonial speeches underlined. For example, Major General Hermann Kaponig, Commander of Directorate 6 – ICT & Cyber (– Launch of Directorate 6 – ICT & Cyber), emphasized the great relevance of ensuring “command superiority in the Austrian Armed Forces with targeted measures” in view of the increased number of espionage attacks in Austria and “hybrid warfare in Europe”. The ability to defend cyberspace is just as important as ensuring the digitalization and networking of all systems.

According to Kaponig, further training at all levels in the field of information and communication technology (ICT) is a top priority alongside staff recruitment. There are many possibilities: From cyber basic military service, which would be a “real model for success”, such as bachelor courses in ICT and the numerous opportunities offered by the Command Support School in particular.

Accurision: Schutz und Täuschung im GNSS-Spektrum

Partnership with amateur radio operators

In addition to the speeches, the awarding of the cyber achievement badges, the commemoration of the dead and the lively “March of the Cyber Forces”, a new partnership was also officially sealed on the day. The Austrian Military Radio Society (AMRS), which was initially a branch of the Austrian Armed Forces and was continued as an association by amateur radio operators in the early 1990s, is now an official partner of the Austrian Armed Forces (-> Interview with the president and a board member of the AMRS).

According to the partnership document, “the experience and capabilities of both organizations are to be officially bundled and combined”. Particular mention should be made of the cooperation in the field of emergency and disaster radio as well as the integration of the AMRS local stations into the radio network of the Austrian Armed Forces’ State Crisis and Disaster Management (SKKM).

Here for more news about the Austrian Armed Forces.