News

July 5th 2007 - General Dynamics UK demonstrates policy-based information sharing across the battlespace

Demonstration proves that more-efficient information-management technique is achievable across Bowman and is interoperable with Coalition systems.

General Dynamics United Kingdom Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of General Dynamics (NYSE: GD), successfully demonstrated a policy-based information management technique that will increase the efficiency of bandwidth usage in tactical military networks. As well as being demonstrated at the Land Systems Reference Centre (LSRC) in May, it was also demonstrated at the Coalition Warrior Interoperability Demonstration (CWID), held at the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) in Portsdown West, Fareham from 2 – 22 June 2007.

The demonstrations showed how application information can be distributed over the existing Bowman communications system through a user-based policy, which will enable the sharing of bandwidth-intensive information such as a Blue Force picture or HUMS (Health and Usage Monitoring System) information and lead to more efficient use of bandwidth.

The knowledge gained throughout the FCIP (Final ComBAT, Infrastructure and Platform) concept and assessment activity will be incorporated into the Validation Phase for BCIP6, which is considering options for the introduction of a more efficient information management capability on the Bowman network and its impact on other programmes such as FRES.

Using elements of COINS, the Common Operational Information System, and MDS, the Multilateral Interoperability Programme Data Service, the team proved the concept of holding data in a database and sending it only to interested parties rather than broadcasting it to all.

For the trial, COINS and MDS were integrated onto BCIP5. The trial successfully met the criteria of the FCIP programme, which called for a demonstration, with evidence, of the principle of Data Replication.

Andrew Browne, Vice President C4I (UK) said: “This is a very important input into the BCIP6 Validation Phase, which aims to continue the evolution of BCIP’s data handling capabilities, by identifying the requirements for the next capability release”.

The spiral evolution of BCIP will be the subject of a Main Gate submission in 2008 and if approved, will include essential maintenance upgrades and implementing new technology to deliver enhanced capabilities.