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BAE SYSTEMS helps Dutch troops pre-Balkans communications training

13 Aug 2001

A BAE Systems supplied training system will be used by the British Army's School of Signals to supply training services to Netherlands Army personnel who will use United Kingdom communications assets made available to NATO for the support of allied forces in the Balkans.

Training will take place using a fully equipped ISO container and associated equipment providing representative PABX-based and secure communications. Network management skills and equipment maintenance procedures will be fully acquired in four-week courses.

The system was supplied by the Communications & Defence Infrastructure (CDI) Division of BAE Systems Avionics to Headquarters, Royal School of Signals at Blandford, United Kingdom.

BAE Systems introduced commercially sourced, in-theatre communications into the Balkans in 2000, on behalf of the UK Ministry of Defence, to support British and Allied forces. A key driver behind the 28 week programme was the ability to make significant reductions in the number of skilled Royal Signals personnel needed. The programme reflected an investment of over 20 million and involved the supply of integrated communications containers providing voice and data facilities.

The commercial-off-the-shelf technology included PABX telephone equipment, communications multiplexers, line-of-sight microwave equipment, aerials and towers and ISO containers. The containers were fitted with climate control, uninterruptable power supplies and shock-mounted equipment racks to accommodate the communications systems.

BAE Systems also supplied an integrated Management Information System (MIS) which, together with associated commercial-off-the-shelf systems, dramatically cut the number of trained personnel required to operate and maintain the equipment by allowing users to control and monitor equipment and services automatically at both local and remote sites.

BAE Systems took prime contracting responsibility to provide mobile communications facilities, again based on existing civil technologies, to operate alongside the fixed network.

These systems include a vocoded (compressed digital) voice facility to provide clear, comprehensible communications between ground based operators and helicopter crew, plus satellite systems for theatre-wide mobile communications. Each system was installed before the onset of the severe autumn weather conditions in the mountainous Balkans region. Similar systems were recently delivered to Sierra Leone to support British forces engaged in peacekeeping duties.

CDI supplies tactical and strategic communications systems for all three domains, together with information infrastructure and IFF systems, to support battlespace digitisation. The BAE Systems division develops defence applications based on commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) sub-systems and accepts development risk from customer organisations. CDI's approach features the creation of Integrated Project Teams (IPTs) with procurement specialists and user representatives, and the development of industrial alliances with other major industry centres of specialist expertise in associated fields.