EVOLUTION IN ACTION: BATTLE MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS CONTINUE TO DEVELOP

BY GILES EBBUTT

Getting inside the opponent’s decision loop” is a much-quoted aim of modern warfare, which essentially means making decisions and taking effective action more quickly than the enemy, in order to keep them off balance and retain the initiative. This can only be achieved by an effective command and control (C2) structure and systems that provide commanders with accurate information and enable the rapid passage of plans and orders down the command structure. And this is true at all levels of command.

At the tactical level battle management systems (BMS) have automated many of the C2 functions and are now an essential part of the provision of accurate, timely and all-informed situational awareness (SA) and the efficient exercise of command. BMS capabilities continue to evolve to support new concepts.

Systematic’s data-centric AI-based SitaWare Insight, an add-on for SitaWare Headquarters, being viewed by UK staff. © Systematic

SYSTEMATIC’S SITAWARE

While some countries use a BMS supplied by their domestic industry, others source their systems from elsewhere. Probably the most ubiquitous of these solutions is from Danish software house Systematic, whose SitaWare C2 software suite is in use in different guises in over 30 countries.

SitaWare consists of three interoperable and scalable segments: SitaWare Headquarters (HQ), designed for use in command posts (CP) and HQs at battalion level and above and for maritime and air operations; SitaWare Frontline, a battle management system intended principally for use in vehicles; and SitaWare Edge for the dismounted user. From its original focus on the land domain, SitaWare has now been expanded into the maritime and air domains, particularly for SitaWare HQ.

It is an open and customisable system. The software includes SitaWare Tactical Communications (STC) which supports the rapid and efficient transfer of data over tactical radios with limited bandwidth, managing the complexities of data compression, bandwidth management, synchronization, connectivity and routing. It also includes the Multilateral

Interoperability Programme (MIP) Data Exchange Model (DEM), which supports coalition interoperability.

The software has been progressively improved over its life, with better mapping including a 3D capability, an improved human-machine interface (HMI) and increasing functionality to embrace different warfighting functions, such as a specific fires application. The most recent addition has been SitaWare Insight, an Artificial Intelligence (AI) based data-analysis capability intended to support staff across intelligence, planning and operations at all levels of command, enabling data from all domains to be combined and then exploited.

Systematic has steadily added additional customers for its software. The most recent is Poland, which will receive SitaWare Frontline as part of the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) agreement for 250 M1A2SEPv3 Abrams main battle tanks (MBT) and other supporting vehicles which was announced in early 2022.

The German Bundeswehr has been steadily adopting a SitaWare solution for its command posts and vehicle borne requirements, having Initially used a version of the software in the joint headquarters in Potsdam. In mid-2019 SitaWare HQ was selected for use in its deployable CPs.

At the end of 2019 Frontline was selected as the vehicle-borne BMS for the German-led Very High Readiness Joint Task Force 2023 (Land) (VJTF (L) 2023) programme, and it was subsequently adopted for the remainder of the German Army. The Bundeswehr has now implemented SitaWare as the Bundeswehr Mission Enabling Service (MESBw) to provide a common framework across all domains.

Us Army Solution

The largest user of a SitaWare-based system is the US Army, which has customised SitaWare HQ to form the core of its Command Post Computing Environment (CPCE), providing a framework architecture that hosts previously stove-piped functional systems. Speaking at the Association of the US Army annual meeting in October 2022 Colonel Matt Paul, project manager, mission command, with the program executive officer, command, control, communications-tactical (PEO C3T) said that

Increment 1 of CPCE was six months into the fielding process, with about 450 units equipped.

Increment 2 is under development. This will shift the environment to a cloud-native solution, he said, and will integrate six more functional applications. These include third party intelligence applications covering both all-source intelligence and intelligence support to targeting. Col Paul said this is the first time intelligence functionality has been fully integrated into the environment, replacing unwieldy manual processes.

Increment 2 also includes a sustainment application, providing an automated tactical logistics C2 capability that the US army last had about 10 years ago when it divested the Battlefield Combat Service Support system (BCS3). Col Paul added that the increment would also improve the tactical data fabric, particularly data management. Increment 2 was tested at Project Convergence 22 in late 2022 and providing it was successful will be fielded sometime in 2023.

For the vehicle-based Mounted Computing Environment (MCE) the US Army is adopting a Tactical Assault Kit (TAK) based solution with functionality that it has developed in-house to sit on top of the basic TAK software. The first tests will take place in early- to mid-2023 and providing these are satisfactory fielding will begin later in 2023. Col Paul explained that as MCE will be hosted on the existing second generation Mounted Family of Computer Systems (MFoCS II) hardware, fielding should be fairly rapid as it only consists of a hard drive change.

The second increment of MCE is currently being developed. This will add fires, intelligence and sustainability functionality. Col Paul said that the intention is to establish a 12-month software upgrade cycle.

Under current plans both CPCE and MCE will be available at battalion HQ. However, Col Paul noted that lessons from the Ukraine conflict included the need for dispersal and constant movement to avoid HQs being targeted, and there was therefore a requirement for minimal infrastructure to enhance speed of displacement. As a result the Army is examining what functionality was required at what level of command, he said.

For the dismounted user the Nett Warrior system has settled on the Android TAK solution, first espoused by the Special Forces community and now adopted by the wider Army. It provides a simple, easy to use SA system that is popular with users.

Uk Uncertainty

The British Army continues to use its common battlefield applications toolset (ComBAT) and the platform battlefield information systems application (PBISA), which was part of the overall Bowman communications system and known collectively as BCIP. It is produced by General Dynamics (GD). The current version is BCIP 5.6, which has overcome many of the problems of earlier versions.

The intention is to replace BCIP as part of Project MORPHEUS, itself a sub-programme of the UK’s overall Land Environment Tactical CIS (LE TacCIS) digital modernisation programme. There are - or were – two elements to this. The Evolve to Open (EvO) phase, for which GD was contracted in 2017, should replace BCIP with a modular system using an open architecture as opposed to the current closed system. This would then form the basis of the future system.

Separately, Elbit Systems UK was contracted to produce a new battle management application (BMA) that would provide the future BMS and replace ComBAT. By all accounts the BMA has been developed, based on Elbit’s TORCH-X framework that is used by a number of customers including the IDF.

However, the EvO programme does not appear to be progressing according to plan. There have been rumours for some time that GD has not yet delivered on the contract, and this would seem to be borne out in evidence given in December

The US Army’s MCE will be hosted on Leonardo DRS’s MFoCS II hardware. © Leonardo DRS

2022 to the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee examining the 2022-2023 MoD Equipment Plan. The MoD Permanent Secretary told the committee that “We have successfully now got through the design for the Evolve to Open programme. We are not confident that the current arrangements will allow us to deliver.”

It is not yet clear what is going to happen next. By all accounts, the Elbit BMA will not be utilised although it is not entirely clear why. Its mounted and dismounted solution has been abruptly withdrawn from use by the Australian Army (and may be replaced by SitaWare), although the public reasons for this remain disputed; it is not clear whether this has any bearing on the UK’s position.

In the meantime, it is starting to look increasingly likely that the UK may go down the SitaWare route. SitaWare HQ is already used by the UKframeworked and based Allied Rapid Reaction Corps (ARRC), which is NATO-funded and therefore makes its own procurement decisions, and by HQ 3(UK) Division. Reliable sources suggest that there may be a “quick and dirty” UK procurement of SitaWare for limited use by the Army, followed by a longer procurement process for a permanent solution. Matters should become clearer in early 2023.

On the dismounted front the UK’s Dismounted Situational Awareness (DSA) programme has been leaning heavily towards an ATAK solution, with the system utilised to support DSA communications experimentation. However, there are those who suggest that ATAK may have weaknesses, such as limited functionality and interoperability. A final decision has not been made and is unlikely to be until the experimentation programme is complete.

FRANCE’S SCORPION

The French Army’s Synergie du COntact Renforcé par la Polyvalence et l’InfovalorisatiON (SCORPION) modernisation programme will transform the capabilities of the combined-arms battlegroup (groupement tactique interarmes – GTIA), with new vehicles, weapons systems and communications, and most importantly, a new C2 system. All these developments will contribute to the French Army’s new tactical doctrine of “collaborative combat”, which is essentially a network-centric approach relying on the rapid sharing of information to achieve tactical advantage and battlefield success.

The Système d’Information du Combat Scorpion (SICS) (Scorpion Combat Information System) is the new BMS that is at the heart of this concept. It replaces five separate BMS that are currently used below brigade level. Developed by Atos Technologies in a programme that began in 2014, SICS is based on the company’s generic product, known as Atos Digital BMS.

The system uses a standard layered open architecture and incorporates a multipurpose communication server that supports a range of tactical radios plus GSM, LTE, TETRA, TETRAPOL, and satellite communication (SATCOM). The system has been integrated with the French Army’s current radios, the Thales PR4G F@stnet using the GeoMux waveform, and the Sagem

RIF-NG (Réseau d’Information du Fantassin de Nouvelle Génération) for dismounted personnel. In future it will use the Thales CONTACT softwaredefined radio (SDR), which is expected to begin fielding in early 2023.

The SICS software architecture and the human/ machine interface (HMI) have been inspired by those used in social media, with the intention of making the system easy to understand and used by a user generation comfortable with the digital environment.

SICS has three levels with the same software base but different HMI. Battlegroup and company command posts will use a conventional mouse and keyboard, while the vehicle-mounted and dismounted variants have a touch screen interface. The touch screen variants have a “troops in contact” button, to provide an immediate alert across the network when hostile contact is made. SICS will only be fielded down to squad leaders, although the squad leader will have the positions of his individual squad members on his display through the blue force tracking (BFT) capability.

All users are on the same flat network and exchange data through tactical communities of interest (COI) and can be members of a number of different COI. A platoon commander, for example, would be a member of his own COI and that of his company commander. All members of a COI see the same tactical picture and can contribute to it, with information immediately shared across the community. The exception is position location information (PLI) (BFT), which is filtered on a geographical basis, so that all friendly tracks in a particular area are visible to all users.

The system was operationally deployed in the Sahel in 2021-22 in operations over an area of 2.7 million km2, with six CPs and more than 500 SICS installations. The version in use is V1.1 which was delivered in December 2021. V1.1.1 was fielded in late 2022. V1.2 is due to follow in March 2023, which will add new functionalities such as fire support.

The French Army aimed to field a Scorpion battlegroup by 2021, which was achieved with the Mali deployment. The next milestones are to field a brigade by the end of 2023, and then by 2025 to be able to support a small joint operation as framework nation based on deploying two brigades overseas in a coalition environment.