CADIMS (Coordinated Air Defence in Mutual Support)

CADIMS means coordinated air defence in mutual support. It is a NATO abbreviation, and NATO's glossary attaches a note to it: CADIMS Agreement. The entry appears in AAP-15, the Glossary of NATO acronyms and abbreviations, which is published by NATO and held in the NATO archives.

The glossary also gives the French equivalent, coordination de la défense aérienne pour l'appui mutuel, and refers to the Accord sur la CADIMS. Both language forms point to the same thing: a named agreement on air defence coordination, identified by the short form CADIMS. You can read the entry in the AAP-15 glossary.

What the AAP-15 entry records

AAP-15 is NATO's reference list of acronyms and abbreviations, published in English and French. For CADIMS, it records three things:

• The expansion in English: coordinated air defence in mutual support.
• The expansion in French: coordination de la défense aérienne pour l'appui mutuel.
• A note tying the abbreviation to the CADIMS Agreement (Accord sur la CADIMS in French).

The 2013 edition of the glossary is the source for this page. NATO's wider collection of official texts and resources is the place to look for the primary documents behind NATO terminology.

Reading the name

The name has three parts. "Coordinated" and "air defence" describe the subject: air defence activity that is organized across participants rather than run in isolation. "In mutual support" describes the relationship between those participants. NATO's glossary treats the whole phrase as a single term, and the abbreviation CADIMS is how it appears in NATO documents.

Canadian readers should note the spelling. NATO and the Government of Canada both use "defence" in English, and the French form uses "défense". Searching for CADIMS in either language works best with the abbreviation itself, since it is the same in both.

The CADIMS Agreement

NATO's glossary identifies the CADIMS Agreement as the instrument linked to the term. The glossary entry itself is a reference to that agreement. It is not the text of the agreement. A reader who needs the participating states, the obligations or the operational detail should go to the agreement and the NATO publications that cite it, not to the glossary.

CADIMS and Canadian procurement channels

CanadaBuys is the Government of Canada's procurement portal for federal tender opportunities, and its tender opportunities page is the main place suppliers search. CanadaBuys also states that NATO Support and Procurement Agency opportunities are showcased for Canadian businesses because Canada is a NATO member. That is explained in its guide on how to find tender opportunities.

These CanadaBuys pages do not list CADIMS as a procurement category, clause, certification or supplier requirement. CADIMS is a NATO reference term, not a Canadian procurement program.

What CADIMS means for a supplier

For a supplier bidding on Canadian public contracts, CADIMS is a term to recognize, not a requirement to meet. If it appears in a solicitation, a statement of work or a contract, the obligations come from that document. Read the surrounding text, ask the contracting authority a question through the tender process if the reference is unclear, and do not assume a certification or compliance step that the document does not state.

Bid teams working on defence and air defence opportunities can use the AAP-15 entry to confirm the expansion and cite NATO's wording correctly in proposals. Monitor CanadaBuys, including the NATO Support and Procurement Agency opportunities it showcases, for notices that reference NATO terminology.