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www.sea-technology.com January 2018 | ST 31 The STO achieves its mission in two ways. On the one hand, the STO nurtures a vibrant multinational collabo- ration network of more than 5,000 actively engaged sci- entists, engineers and analysts; this network draws upon a larger network of expertise of more than 200,000 sci- entists and engineers in the allied and partner nations, embracing a broad spectrum of scientific fields designed to address defense-relevant aspects. On the other hand, the STO encompasses the Centre for Maritime Research and Experimentation (CMRE), a customer-funded mar- itime S&T; establishment delivering military-relevant state-of-the art S&T.; The center operates two research vessels (RV), the NATO RV Alliance and the coastal RV Leonardo. The STO is governed by the S&T; board (STB), which comprises senior defense S&T; leaders from allied and partner nations, as well as NATO entities. The STB is chaired by the NATO Chief Scientist, who is the STB's representative to the NAC and NATO's Secretary Gener- al. The co-vice chairs of the STB are from the armaments and military side of the NATO house, thereby underlin- ing the connectivity of S&T; with its main clients. Highlights from the STO PoW Maritime S&T; within NATO STO's Programme of Work (PoW) has been prominent for decades. Topics in- clude maritime situational awareness and security, co- operative anti-submarine warfare, naval mine warfare, ship signature management, unmanned autonomous ve- hicles, environmental knowledge and ocean engineering and underwater communications and standards. Maritime ISR (Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnais- sance) Glider Networks and Mission Support as a Ser- vice. Robotic underwater networks can provide cost-ef- fective and long-endurance solutions for a secure initial preparation of operating environments (IPOE) and for therefore remain of critical importance for the Alliance and its partner nations to safeguard our freedom and shared values. Discovering, developing and utilizing ad- vanced knowledge and cutting-edge science and tech- nology (S&T;) is of fundamental importance to continue enabling our Alliance forces to succeed across the full spectrum of operations now and in the future. S&T; within NATO Start and Core Principles. Scientific and technologi- cal cooperation within NATO has a rich and fruitful tra- dition of more than six decades, starting in the middle of the last century. In those days, the North Atlantic Coun- cil (NAC) noted: "During the last decades it has become ever clearer that in modern society science and technol- ogy and their application provide the way to industrial growth and a higher standard of living. They are factors of rapidly growing importance for economic and military strength." A notion that is still fully valid today. From the onset, S&T; cooperation within NATO has been built on two complementary approaches: multi- national collaborative S&T; that nations and other stake- holders elect to carry out and fund in the NATO context, and in-house S&T; that is carried out in a NATO-owned research establishment in predominantly the maritime domain. Organization. Building on the experience and in- sights gained by several NATO organizations addressing S&T;, the NATO S&T; Organization (STO) was established in 2012. The STO's mission is to: "Generate and exploit a lead- ing-edge S&T; programme of work, delivering timely re- sults and advice that advance the defence capabilities of NATO Nations, Partner Nations, and NATO in support of collective defence, crisis management and cooperative security." Prediction of transmission loss as a function of depth and distance along a glider track in the Ligurian Sea off the coast of Italy in 2016. The top-left panel shows transmis- sion loss (TL) relative to a geometry assuming a shallow sound source and using the glider observations of sound speed along the cross-sec- tion. The middle-left plot shows the TL based on a 24-hour forecast not constrained by local observations. The middle-right plot shows results using the 24-hour forecast assimilat- ing only satellite observations. The bottom-left plot shows the ocean forecast using only the glider's past observations. The bottom-right pan- el displays the optimal results, com- bining previous glider and satellite observations to correct the 24-hour forecast. The latter shows a closer match with the results estimated by the actual observations.