CWID NEWS IN BRIEF
By Julian Nettlefold
12 Jun 08. Once again the MoD and CWID Team Members excelled themselves in an excellent display of technology for CWD 08. BATTLESPACE will be running an in depth feature for our October AUSA issue. To ensure that CWID 08 is relevant, coherent and realistic Deputy Chief of Defence Staff (Equipment Capability) Lt Gen Andrew Figgures wished to focus the UK element of CWID 08 on an Afghanistan scenario against a 2011 timeframe.
Coalition Warrior Interoperability Demonstration (CWID)UK took place between 2 and 20 June at the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl), Portsdown West, Fareham. It was the 14th consecutive year of participation for the UK in CWID, and the seventh year that it has been hosted by Dstl.
CWID is a partnership between industry and the MoD. Run as part of a wider US-led coalition, CWID allows new technology solutions to be trialled in a realistic, real-time environment with existing systems, giving MOD a unique opportunity to work closely with representatives from industry.
For military command and control, access to the right information at the right time is vital for operational success. This year’s event aimed to build on the success of previous years in meeting a strategic requirement for Network Enabled Capability (NEC). The NEC vision requires timely and relevant information to be available across the spectrum of command and operations. CWID aims to achieve this by identifying technological solutions to support current operational requirements.
The organisers have selected 35 trials for demonstration at the 2008 event. The range of demonstrations is focused on Command and Control, Situational Awareness, ISTAR, Resilient Information Infrastructure and Information Assurance.
CWID is a programme that impacts directly on MOD equipment programme and works in support of current and future operations. Information is vital to operational success and CWID aims to deliver this through coherent and resilient network-based solutions.
We include synopses of exhibits here.
Fujitsu
12 Jun 08. Fujitsu performs information systems integration role at CWID. For this year’s CWID Fujitsu was performing an information systems integration role within the industry team which participates.
Fujitsu, which has contributed to CWID every year since 1997, is providing open architecture technology for CWID 08, integrating layers of applications to provide shared information and situational awareness to the military users.
“Fujitsu’s design approach is based on the use of open standards and protocols providing a new architectural benchmark for military C2 systems and as a systems integrator with no vested product interests, it is able to use best-in-breed applications”, said Andy Head, Business Development Director, Fujitsu Defence and Security.
A UK operational scenario three years hence forward in Afghanistan is being tested at this year’s CWID and will involve a combination of UK, US/UK Coalition and NATO units being deployed across the main CWID scenario, which means the network has to distribute information across the three domains and manage the required information sharing restrictions.
The only UK commercial trial operating across all three domains is openJOP, the framework that delivers the Joint Operations Picture (JOP) on the Defence Information Infrastructure (DII) as part of the Joint Command and Control Support Programme (JC2SP). openJOP provides the next generation of Command and Control capabilities to support Effects Based Operations, enabling military users throughout the Command chain to see the full range of Battlespace and Reference information. For this year’s CWID Fujitsu has introduced a new more intuitive user interface.
openJOP is the result of a 90 day innovation challenge conducted three years ago by Fujitsu in its Future Concept Centre. Fujitsu was selected to deliver the Interoperability Project within JC2SP pr