The NATO Communications and Information Systems School (NCISS)is a school run by NATO that provides formal technical training on certain Communication and information Systems (CIS) deployed on operations or exercises by the Alliance. NCISS operates as a training establishment for both NATO Strategic Commands and since 2004 it is responsible to the NATO CIS Services Agency (NCSA), in consultation with Allied Command Transformation (ACT). It is located in Oeiras, Portugal. Historical notes NCISS was created in 1959 as a Contractor Training Facility to conduct ACE HIGH instruction. It was hosted at an Italian Air Force Base in Latina. The school later became NCISS. In January 1963 Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE) assumed full control of NCISS. It recruited NATO civilian instructional staff to replace those of the civil contractor. In 1964 the NGISS training responsibility was extended into the area of Command and Control with the introduction of the "Status, Control Alert and Reporting System" (SCARS). The facility at this time was named the "SHAPE Centralised Training Facility" (SCTF). A further expansion occurred in the early 1970s with the addition to the training curriculum of Satellite Communications (SATCOM). In April 1974 SCTF was changed to "NATO Communications School Latina" (NCS). To satisfy the increasing requirements arising from NATO's Integrated Communications System (NICS) concept, a new training facility was initiated in 1976. This project called for a facility comprising a training and administrative building and a separate student accommodation block. The new complex was opened in 1983. It enabled the School to take on additional training associated with NICS such as TARE, IVSN and TCF, and allowed the School to cater for future developments within NATO CIS. The School entered the area of Officer Training in the late 1970s with courses for NATO CIS Staff Officers, Officers CIS Orientation, Communications Security Officers and ADP Site/Terminal Area Security Officers. In 1989 the School was renamed "NATO Communications and Information Systems School" (NCISS). With the introduction and increased use of specific Command and Control Information Systems within NATO, a requirement arose for software engineering and programming. In the 1990s the School entered ADP, project management and information systems training, part of it being offered as off-site courses throughout NATO Europe. In October 1994, the first CIS Officers' Course for Cooperation Partner (CP) Nations was conducted at Latina. . The School successfully introduced Computer Assisted Training (CAT) modules on all its courses and