ADM October 2004 - LAND WARFARE-Rheinmetall no longer firing blind

Network-centric operations, or sensor to shooter, are popularly associated with the giants of defence electronics and with expensive computer/communications systems. But a company more associated with old style heavy industry is demonstrating that the old dog can still learn new tricks.

Rheinmetall DeTec (Defence Technolgy) is famous for its gun, ammunition and pyrotechnic businesses but with the recent re-organisation of the German defence industry it has acquired the non-naval business of the former Atlas Elektronik as well as the latter's training products. Consequently the ship handling simulator for the Royal Australian Navy in Sydney is now the responsibility of Rheinmetall.

The company recognises that defence requirements are decreasingly focused upon products and demand integrated capabilities. But it believes that rather than seeking to develop a whole new raft of hardware and software products to meet the demands of modern warfare it is easier, and better for the customer, to seek the means of linking old and new products.

The company has inherited a selection of ISTAR products including the BAS 2000 airborne infra-red electro-optic sensor which is used in the Breguet maritime patrol aircraft, Sea King helicopters and the Brevel unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), the Brevel system, and the BAA electro-optical surveillance system but it is also involved in vehicle electronics (vectronics) and ground sensor equipment such as the BSA.

The BAA may be fitted into a reconnaissance vehicle, they are used in German and Dutch Fenneks with extendable masts, or it can act as a stand-alone system. The BSA can operate autonomously for up to 30 days monitoring routes and identifying traffic then reporting the data to a central point up to 12 kilometres away.

The company also produces mobile air-defence systems such as Advanced Short-Range Air Defence (ASRAD) vehicle-mounted mobile point-defence system which has been selected by Germany, Greece and Finland. This includes a mobile command post with the Ericsson Improved Hard radar and an electr-optic detection system such as the Thales ADAD.

While most of these products are for land operations the company has also inherited the MSP electro-optic director for warships. Curiously there is an Australian application with the future amphibious warfare vessel requirement now emerging.

In an amphibious operation the airborne sensors can be networked with those in ships or even on weapons mountings such as the NLG 27 light gun. They can then be integrated to provide a network which can then be exploitd by weapon systems as different as the MASS decoy launcher and the SMARt 'intelligent' 155mm shell.

Rheinmetall believe in exploiting existing systems to provide the network centric capability. They are developing several vectronic command and control systems such as Lince for Spain, VIINACCS for Switzerland, Iniochos for Greece and TCCS for Sweden and are confident they can provide one element of the networking process, especially as vehicles increasingly use electro-optic sensor packages.

Communications must be based upon existing equipment so far as possible, although the gradual integration of digital communications makes integration of audio and visual data easier. But organisation is also importat and the company believes that forces should move away from hierarchical radio networks which can actually reduce the number of units required. Work for Swedish and Spanish armoured vehicle cmmand and control systems has shown that while two units are required in ordinary battle-tanks and twice that many in platoon command vehicles the non- hierarchical structure means the latter requires only three units.

The only piece of new hardware which Rheinmetall believes might be necessary is a bi-conical multi-beam rotation antenna. This would use Commerciall-Off-The-Shelf hardware and would be installed on high ground within a company area of operations to transmit images around the lower lvels of thenetwork.

The key to networking existing hardware is, in Rheinmetall's view, being able to manage information. This requires the harmonisation of processes such as analysis and definition then exploiting the use of the information knowing when it should be transmitted and to where. This then results in the fusion of information through-out the effected force.

Industry therefore needs to ensure the evolutionary development of weapon systems and the integration of compatible electronic products to make them suitable for open architecture use. Rheinmetall is currently working with other members of the German defence industry to achieve the basis for a network enabled capability.

By Ted Hooton, London