Soldier Systems support force protection, increase operational effectiveness, reliability and endurance of individual soldiers and formations. They comprise the gender-neutral equipment of individual military personnel to be able to operate with a sufficient level of protection in any operational environment. Soldier Systems are a primary force multiplier. The development and integration of cutting-edge technology is key for forces.
The evolving operational environment requires the development of a next generation dismounted soldier system able to enhance close combat operational capabilities such as survivability facing new threats in various operational theatres, mobility, lethality, command and control and sustainability, as well as training and simulation embedded systems to enhance readiness. It should be designed for an easy integration in a digital battlefield thanks to interoperability features with next and upgraded armoured land and airborne vehicles as well as future unmanned vehicles (UxVs) along with already deployed upgraded soldier systems.
This new generation system focuses on empowering soldier tactical decision ability that becomes more efficient within his tactical organization through a common pool of resources.
Individual capability enhancement and a comprehensive integration of soldiers in the digital battlefield should contribute to the dominance in joint operational environments for the troops in that operational environment.
Specific challenge of individual capability enhancement address the dismounted close combat domains (C4I, survivability including protections, mobility, lethality, sustainability) focusing on the reduction of the burden of the soldier while optimizing the cognitive load under operational conditions.
The proposals must address:
- The development of an individual advanced standardized and open architecture soldier core system able to integrate devices, capability suites and applications meeting this standard able to guarantee an agile process for a rapid evolution of the dismounted soldier’s operational capability facing an evolving operational environment;
- Innovative technologies for new devices and capability suites development able to be implemented / integrated with the soldier core system addressing the domains of the close combat, i.e.: survivability (multi-threats protection, threat detection), sustainability (enhancement of energy source capacity and power management), mobility (localization, navigation & physical augmentation), observation (environment perception & situational awareness by day & night conditions), lethality (smart engagement), along with path-agnostic communications. These innovative technologies will rely on advanced technologies such as data sciences;
- New networking capability developing mixed interactions between soldiers, armoured vehicles and UxVs in an augmented tactical unit format relying on standard interface and protocols consistent with existing or coming next tactical communication (i.e.: shared situational awareness and localization when dismounted & while dismounted from vehicles carriers, combat id, coordinated navigation, collaborative observation and protection, coordinated fire support with available weapon systems at tactical unit level);
- The above topics must show a clear vision for a harmonization process of requirements, specifications and standards able to demonstrate economical, technical and operational advantages to promote future European acquisition plans.
The proposals must cover the following activities as referred in article 10.3 of the EDF Regulation, not excluding upstream or downstream activities eligible for development actions if deemed useful to reach the objectives:
- Studies, such as feasibility studies to explore the feasibility of new or improved technologies, products, processes, services and solutions;
- The design of a defence product, tangible or intangible component or technology as well as the definition of the technical specifications on which such design has been developed which may include partial tests for risk reduction in an industrial or representative environment;
- The development of a model of a defence product, tangible or intangible component or technology, which can demonstrate the element’s performance in an operational environment (system prototype);
- The testing of product, tangible or intangible component or technology. Functional requirements
The targeted activities must address:
- Harmonization activities for requirements, specifications and standards through a large cross-fertilization process with Member States representatives in all domains (OPS, TECH, Procurement…). The harmonization approach assessment is done through:
- Definition of Use Cases and ad-hoc concepts of operations (CONOPS);
- Specification, design & development of an open soldier core system, which will consider the PADR GOSSRA (Generic Open Soldier System Reference Architecture) outputs executed under EDA STASS-II projects;
- Specification, design & development of capability suites interfaced with the soldier core system;
- Specification, design & development of network enable capability and new interactions with robotics and platforms.
- Development of demonstrators/demonstration for evaluation purpose showing operational benefits and added value of harmonization activities with:
- A feasibility study of the soldier system concept and a selection of devices/capability suites concepts connected to the soldier core system which fulfill the given high level requirements, including a Detailed Requirements Review (DRR);
- The detailed design of the soldier system and selected devices / capability suites sub-systems, including a System Requirement Review (SRR), a Preliminary Design Review (PDR) and Critical Design Review (CDR);
- The development, production and evaluation in a representative environment (virtual and/or real) of technology demonstrators (soldier systems – devices / capability suites) able to be used in a representative scale demonstration making sense at the operational level and relying on a tailored existing troop carriers armored vehicles and uxv;
- Benchmarking/testing of the demonstrators against the requirements;
- Synthesis and way to proceed for dissemination.
The soldier system and related devices/capability suites sub-systems must:
- Have a system approach including standardization and open architecture concept to guarantee a rapid evolution of the system in a cost effective way;
- Enhance operational capability in the supra mentioned dismounted close combat domains including logistic footprint and compatible with the system approach contributing to size, weight, power and cost (swap-c) criteria;
- Demonstrate secured networking enable capabilities at the tactical unit organization level involving armored troops carriers and uxvs.
To fulfill above mentioned requirements the soldier core system solution must:
- Focus on lightweight, modularity, ergonomic and highly usable man/system interfaces;
- Federate relevant upcoming technology building block (tbb) studies and existing/already performed tbbs study outcomes;
- Consider experience learned from existing deployed soldier system.
To fulfil supra mentioned requirements the soldier system and the related devices / capability suites must:
- Demonstrate substantial augmentation of dismounted close combat capability in the field of perception/situation awareness, mobility, localization/navigation and cognition thanks to multi modals interface concept and the support of Artificial Intelligence;
- Be capable to interact with small new generation robotics and drones or upgraded ones;
- Be compatible with military environmental conditions and capable of performing missions by day and night;
- Be prepared to interface new dismounted weapon systems or upgraded ones to improve individual performance and enabling networking capability;
- Support use of tactical communications;
- Be prepared to interface the land tactical cloud;
- Optimize the integration and connectivity with existing and coming next generation of troop carriers with respect to seamless communication and situational awareness in the mounted/dismounted combat phase;
- Be designed to implement embedded training to facilitate system usability on the field;
- Be design to interface training/simulation capability tools;
- Minimize logistic footprint thanks to standardization;
- Be capable to protect from CBRN threats;
- Be designed to implement cybersecurity mechanisms protecting the integrity and security of the mission information;
- Be prepared to assure the electromagnetic security (e.g. Protection against jamming).
In the frame of the development process, the project should be scheduled according to:
- A two years phase of requirements harmonization and enhancement of technologies readiness until getting a CDR gate;
- Followed by a two years development of demonstrators / demonstrations for operational evaluation purpose as well as the development of a dissemination process.
Timely and accurate logistic information and sharing is required for the efficient management and coordination of multinational logistic networks and hubs. Information management for multinational logistics, including for Military Mobility related information, contributes to enhanced efficiency and effectiveness, notably to the reduction of overall costs and environmental footprint, flexibility of forces, improved interoperability and fair burden sharing between Member States or conservation of scarce local resources.
The crises in the vicinity of the EU have changed the security situation of the EU Member States and EU needs to respond to those challenges. Inter alia, this significantly increases the importance of functioning and efficient military mobility. The ongoing COVID-19 crisis, although a civilian crisis, has painfully highlighted the gaps in the functioning of logistics in the midst of a crisis. In part, the problem is related to divergent requirements for the exchange of information on military mobility across the Member States. That has led to cumbersome and often slow cross-border movement.
The EU Foreign Affairs Council conclusions from 25 June 2018 put forward several political objectives concerning military mobility. Inter alia, they call on Member States to take action nationally to improve the efficiency of military mobility, and to simplify and standardise the relevant rules and procedures by no later than 2024. The Council conclusions further call for simplified and standardised procedures in order to accelerate border crossing procedures and work towards granting cross border movement permissions, including requests for entry and movement permission for all modes (surface, air and sea) for routine activities within 5 working days. Hence, this constitutes a strategic objective for the Member States.
A particular challenge is that, in practice, the time required to obtain approvals and diplomatic clearances for cross-border movements varies considerably between the EU Member States and the procedures are poorly standardised. Currently various approvals are needed at state, regional and local levels. Furthermore, there is a need to exchange customs related information digitally. As a result, the current situation has made the movement of troops, equipment and supplies slow and cumbersome.
Therefore, digital tools should be utilised to achieve the political objectives of greater simplification, standardisation and rapid issuance of the cross-border movement permits. To this end, a digital system for military mobility will be a key enabler for the political commitments made. Furthermore, military mobility is an area of flagship cooperation between the EU and NATO. The digitalisation efforts would support the work and objectives of both organisations. Therefore, the actions should be coordinated between the two organisations to the extent possible.
Digitalisation is a key enabler for efficient and speedy military mobility. Digitalisation would also allow for increased standardisation and harmonisation between the Member States. The scope of the action focuses on cross-border movement permissions. Currently, there are several different forms in use across the EU and NATO countries, whereas the authorisations that are needed differ at state, regional and local levels. Diverging rules, in turn, make the permitting procedures cumbersome and time-consuming. A joint ICT system should be used to develop uniform cross-border movement permission documents, which will be tailored to the needs of the participating Member States. Furthermore, there is ongoing work by the Member States and the EDA, which could be used as a point of departure.
The proposal must address the development of digital military mobility information exchange system.
The proposals must cover the following activities as referred in article 10.3 of the EDF Regulation, not excluding possible upstream and downstream activities eligible for development actions if deemed useful to reach the objectives:
- Studies, such as feasibility studies to explore the feasibility of new or improved technologies, products, processes, services and solutions;
- The design of a defence product, tangible or intangible component or technology as well as the definition of the technical specifications on which such design has been developed which may include partial tests for risk reduction in an industrial or representative environment;
- The development of a model of a defence product, tangible or intangible component or technology, which can demonstrate the element’s performance in an operational environment (system prototype);
- The testing of a defence product, tangible or intangible component or technology.
The proposals must address in particular the following objectives:
- Action 1: Feasibility study, identifying costs and benefits, assessment of the feasibility of possible functionalities and interfaces with the existing systems. Validation of the estimated budget (life cycle costs, including later maintenance costs) and assessment of the duration for the development. Final validation of the feasibility of the functional requirements.
- Action 2: System Requirement Analysis detailing the needs based on the functional requirements, including analysis of end-user needs and the analysis of existing procedures.
- Action 3: Development and testing of a digital system for the secure and quick exchange of information related to military mobility. Development and testing to be done in close cooperation with the participating Member States and associated organisations. Training for the end-users and compiling user manuals.