Defense`s Feeds

Today, the European Defence Agency (EDA) has launched a new project to establish a safe-communication extension for NATO Generic Vehicle Architecture (NGVA) in terms of functional safety. The project which will run over 24 months with a €3,5 million budget, is the first step in a series of Safe NGVA projects that eventually aim to develop and test physical demonstrators in relevant environments in the second and third phases.

Generic architectures are open systems to other entities and give access to data that are usually hidden in proprietary systems. As these systems are becoming more common and widely used in military vehicles, safety is one part of the NGVA that is not defined to an implementable depth.

The Safe NATO Generic Vehicle Architecture (SafeNGVA) project proposes to solve the issue by providing separate safe, but closed, sub-systems or infrastructure that is accessible by other participants in the architecture by one-way-gateways.

Led by Germany, the first phase of SafeNGVA also includes France. It will be carried out by a consortium led by Germany’s Rheinmetall and involves MBDA DE, also of Germany, and Safran, Thales and Nexter of France.  

PROJECT PHASES TOWARDS PHYSICAL DEMONSTRATORS

SafeNGVA in its first phase will seek to define the requirements and design a system architecture for safe communication using the NGVA. The architecture will be validated by different techniques such as performance to robustness tests, to ensure the architecture is conceptually capable of covering all necessary needs for function safety in military vehicles, and a demonstrator and simulation environment for some elements of the NGVA, to provide an implementation close to a real use case. As one of the main goals of the NGVA is to improve interoperability, a demonstration for interoperability between the member states will be performed.

In the second and third phases, the results of SafeNGVA will be used to improve the architecture and validate it further by developing demonstrators for steering a tactical vehicle and by creating a weapon system demonstrator using safety critical hardware and software solutions.

As a project managed by EDA, the initiative can be co-funded by Member States and additional participants can opt in. 

The European Defence Agency 

The European Defence Agency (EDA) supports its 26 Member States in improving their defence capabilities through European cooperation. Acting as an enabler and facilitator for Ministries of Defence willing to engage in collaborative capability projects, the Agency has become the ‘hub’ for European defence cooperation with expertise and networks allowing it to the whole spectrum of defence capabilities. Member States use EDA as an intergovernmental expert platform where their collaborative projects are supported, facilitated, and implemented. What we do (europa.eu)

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The European Defence Agency (EDA) will support two Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO) projects focused on shaping future European airlift capabilities, for both mid-sized and out-sized cargo, following a request from their project coordinators. EDA is tasked to assist with harmonisation of the requirements for two platforms; the Future Medium-Size Tactical Cargo (FMTC) and the Strategic Air Transport For Outsized Cargo (SATOC). Both projects were launched in the fourth wave of PESCO projects and are coordinated by France and Germany, respectively; with the FMTC also gathering Germany, Spain and Sweden as project members and Czechia, France and Netherlands in the four-nation SATOC project.

Medium & Outsized Cargo: Requirements for 2035+

Tactical cargo aircraft are the workhorses of the air forces in terms of logistics, medical evacuations, and special missions. Currently, EU Member States operate a wide range of tactical cargo aircraft (e.g. C130, C-295, C-27J). Apart from the A400M, a modern strategic-tactical cross-over platform,  many of them will be approaching the end of their life cycle in the upcoming decade. The main objective of the FMTC project is to develop next generation tactical air mobility capability of the armed forces of EU Member States. It aims at providing the participating Member States and industry with robust elements to decide what the 2035+ future of EU military tactical medium size transport fleets will be by defining common requirements for a new Future Mid-size Tactical Cargo.

SATOC aims to fill the critical shortfall for strategic transport for outsized and heavy cargo, a crucial enabler for military missions and operations. SATOC involves a 3-step approach, firstly by identifying a sufficient number of project members, harmonising requirements and finally identifying and agreeing on a common European solution for the transport of outsized cargo. Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine has also underscored the importance of outsized and heavy cargo transport. The destruction of several Antonov aircrafts, including AN-225 Mriya (the world’s largest cargo aircraft) has further reduced European Armed Forces access to strategic airlift.

EDA’s support to FMTC and SATOC, which will run for an initial 24 months, will be dedicated to harmonising the requirements of the project members and drafting a joint document of precise common guidance for research and development for the envisioned platform.

Common requirements for a common vision

Defining common requirements is an essential step in order to allow project members to align towards a joint vision for the future medium-sized and outsized cargo aircraft. In other words, common requirement articulation can be seen as the basis that all subsequent decisions in the ensuing programme will reference. They prescribe the fundamental performance criteria and innovation level of the platform that is destined to be a crucial element in future military campaigns of Member States. Furthermore, it will serve as basis for the work of European defence industry, starting with a feasibility study and proceeding with the design and prototyping of the new generation aircraft.

Harmonised requirements lower the life-cycle cost by avoiding late design changes and excessive versioning, and  prevent a fragmentation of future air mobility fleets at large by allowing for a platform development that serves an array of Member States. EDA will provide its expertise and input for the elaboration of the requirements, building on its experience in harmonisation of project partners.

EDA engages in the document drafting process by highlighting areas that connect to ongoing efforts in related fields, such as defence aviation R&T, providing its experience in interoperability matters of tactical airlift, and supports the discussion with best practices in achieving a programme that maximises Member States participation.

EDA supporting 10 PESCO projects

FMTC and SATOC are the ninth and tenth PESCO project to be supported by the Agency. PESCO, which recently marked five years since its launch, has also be able to benefit from the expertise of the EDA. EDA’s support has grown from initial modest administrative support to a couple of PESCO’s smaller-scale projects, but has since grown to include major weapons platforms, such as the FMTC and European Patrol Corvette.

EDA offers three forms of support to PESCO projects, first is administrative support by helping a PESCO project to organise meetings and providing facilities for project-related work. The second form of PESCO support is consultancy and expertise as in the case of the FMTC. Here the Agency and the PESCO project agree on the specific tasks EDA will carry out for a project. This could entail support in capturing the detailed operational and technical requirements, as well as developing its ConOps (concept of operations) by a certain deadline or defining specifications for its technical study.

The final form of EDA support is when participating members of a PESCO project choose to establish their project at the Agency, which means other Member States can choose to opt into, or join, the endeavour at a later stage, with EDA serving as project manager. To date, three PESCO projects are being taken forward within the Agency; CBRN Surveillance as a Service (CBRN SaaS); Deployable Modular Underwater Intervention Capability Package (DIVEPACK); and European Patrol Corvette.

 

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The European Defence Agency (EDA) launched a new project on 13 January to improve the technology behind automatic targeting, as well as in threat recognition and identification, as European militaries seek to make soldiers and weapons systems more effective in battle.

Automatic target/threat recognition, identification and targeting for land systems (ATRIT) can help militaries in detecting, tracking, prioritising and selecting targets, whether off the top of a combat vehicle or from individual weapons. The technology cannot engage, however, without human command. 

Led by Germany, the first phase of ATRIT will also bring together the contributing Member States of France, Greece, the Netherlands and Poland, as well as Norway. It will be carried out by a consortium led by Germany’s Rheinmetall and involves IABG, also of Germany, Safran and Thales of France, ISD SA of Greece, TNO and Thales of the Netherlands, Rheinmetall in Norway and PCO of Poland.  

PHYSICAL DEMONSTRATORS

With a €2 million budget over 18 months, the EDA launch marks the first step in a series of ATRIT projects that eventually aim to develop and test physical demonstrators in relevant environments in a second phase.

ATRIT in its first phase will seek to define the requirements and design the system architecture for an overarching, cross-platform capacity to allocate military targets and enhance detection and to identify threats, including on the basis of behaviour. The new, improved software will not only have the capacity to better identify and enable automatic targeting, but also fuse different sensor data and make it easy for soldiers to use.

As a Category B project managed by EDA, the initiative is co-funded by Member States and additional participants can opt in.

ATRIT analysis in the first phase will be based on the following modules: human behaviour; 360-degree situation awareness; integration of fused sensor information; target allocation; presentation of fused data, including real-time sensor data, C4I and historical data.

For more details, please see here.

EDA'S ROLE

The European Defence Agency (EDA) supports its 26 Member States in improving their defence capabilities through European cooperation. Acting as an enabler and facilitator for Ministries of Defence willing to engage in collaborative capability projects, the Agency has become the ‘hub’ for European defence cooperation with expertise and networks allowing it to the whole spectrum of defence capabilities. 

Member States use EDA as an intergovernmental expert platform where their collaborative projects are supported, facilitated, and implemented. For more details, please see here.

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