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French Army and MoD experiment network-enabled operations

15 June 2006

From a common operational scenario, assets and metrics, an integrated project team (IPT) was set up in Thales' facilities in Colombes for the experiment. The exercise gathered technical experts from Thales, CD&E experts from the Centre for Defence Analysis (CAD), Army general staff simulation experts, and intelligence specialists from the Army intelligence school in Saumur. The IPT was augmented by operational users coming from various Army units to man the intelligence, command and manoeuvre workstations, supported by Thales engineers.

Sharing a distributed environment which merged virtual and constructive simulations with live sensors, commander and shooter information systems networked on live tactical communications, the users evaluated the operational benefits expected from a multi-sensor ISTAR battalion and fusion cell to facilitate the manoeuvre of a combined-arms brigade against an asymmetric ISTAR-aware "orange" enemy.

A full-scale C4I environment was deployed in the TIC, stimulated by the current command post training system, SCIPIO. Initially fielded as a wargaming application to enhance Army commanders' preparedness, SCIPIO proved its versatility by re-creating a fully manned operational environment where company and below forces were played by decisional software agents replicating blue or orange tactics, as well as population behaviours.

Co-developed between Thales and MASA, who deliver the simulation part based on Direct IA® behaviour engine, SCIPIO computer-generated forces were manned by only 5 operators to animate a brigade-size exercise with 4 000 fighters, more than 500 combat vehicles, and about 5000 civilians.

The exercise, code-named Harfang (a white owl from the arctic circle), lasted four days and was the first to investigate new tactics technics and procedures in IPT on a battlelabing platform. Harfang was useful to prepare the ground for the upcoming Laboratoire Technico-Opérationnel (LTO), the French battlelab requirement. The first LTO, centred on the airland collaborative fighting system (BOA), will be delivered to the CAD in 2006, hosting integrated teams from MoD, industry and Army, for which Harfang explored the methodology, tooling and collaborative working procedures.

About Thales

Thales is a leading international electronics and systems group, serving defence, aerospace and security markets worldwide, supported by a comprehensive services offering. The group's civil and military businesses develop in parallel to serve a single objective: the security of people, property and nations. Leveraging a global network of high-level researchers, Thales offers a capability unmatched in Europe to develop and deploy critical information systems. Thales employs 60,000 people in 50 countries and generated revenues of € 10.3 billion in 2005, with a record order book of over € 20 billion.