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Major soldier system integrators establish standardisation initiative

12 June 2003

During the European Infantry Days exhibition, the major European companies involved as Prime Contractors in the Future Soldier System signed an agreement to establish a Soldier Systems Standardisation Industrial Working Group.
The participants include:

* EADS Dornier for the German programme IDZ
* Thales Optronique SA for the French GME FELIN programme
* Marconi Selenia Communications SpA for the Italian Soldato Futuro
* Thales UK for the United Kingdom FIST programme
* TNO for the Dutch programme SMP
* Thales Communications AS for the Norwegian programme NORMANS

Invitations to join this initiative will also be extended to prime contractors from the USA and other countries.

On May 15th 2003, the companies signed an agreement to promote industrial collaboration and standardisation between their respective programmes. The main purpose of this working group is to address interoperability issues and seek harmonisation of interface standards between the countries' soldier systems and to provide support to the NATO and government initiatives in this area from an industrial perspective.

The standardisation of interface standards and modules has implications not only for interoperability, but also interchangeability and commonality, giving enhanced benefits to the respective armed forces. This agreement offers a significant step towards the development of interoperable infantry systems and is an important building block in the combat system of the future.

The European Infantry Days exhibition, held in Montpellier, France from 14th to 16th May is organised by the French Infantry School and allow European manufacturers to promote their equipment and systems, both in service and in development, to international customers.

Thales UK was recently awarded the prime contract for the United Kingdom's FIST Assessment Phase programme. Thales led the previous technology demonstration phase.

EADS - Dornier is the lead company for the German IdZ programme. 80 sets of the new equipment have been delivered and undergone extensive field trials with the german KFOR detachement during a six month period in 2002. First series production is schedulded for 2004.

Thales Optronique SA and GIAT Industries have formed GME FELIN for the FELIN programme under competition. Thales was the prime contractor for the earlier successful TDP, ECAD and system design engineering studies for FELIN.

Marconi Selenia Communications SpA is leading the industrial grouping that has been awarded the contract for Italy's development program "Soldato Futuro". MSC's role include overall system design and integration.

TNO is Europe's second largest contract research organisation, with a sizeable defence division. It is the trusted party of the Netherlands DoD in defence research and is involved in NATO and bi- and trilateral international networks as well as in the evolutionary development of the NL soldier system.

Thales Communications AS is a lead organisation in the Norwegian program NORMANS, responsible for electronics and software systems including the C4I architecture. NORMANS v 01 was field tested November 2002.

Press contacts :
Matt Pothecary - Tel + 33 (0)1 53 77 86 26
Dominique Desbrugères - Tel : + 33 (0) 1 30 96 72 35