EADS DEFENCE AND SECURITY A KEY ENABLER FOR THE SYNTHETIC ENVIRONMENT
By Julian Nettlefold, Editor, BATTLESPACE
BATTLESPACE Editor Julian Nettlefold visits EADS Defence & Security’s new Welsh facility
A jewel in the crown of the EADS Defence & Security (DS) segment was shown to BATTLESPACE during a visit to the new EADS DS Facility at Newport, South Wales in July. The visit not only showed the pedigree of EADS DS but also the strategy devised by Dr Stefan Zoller, CEO of EADS DS, in building strategic technologies for EADS backed up by the NetCOS Network of Synthetic Environment laboratories.
In September 2003 Zoller gave a detailed description of the major reorganisation which had taken place to split the EADS Defence unit into two separate divisions, EADS Defence and Electronics and EADS Defence and Communications Systems. This was a dramatic move away from the policy outlined at the 2001 Paris Air Show where Zoller told his audience that he intended to create a €3bn defence electronics segment within 3 years.
He announced the formation of a new EADS Defence and Security Systems House to meet the growing needs of the Network Enabled Warfare Community in Europe. He said that given EADS’ wide customer base in Europe and the rest of the world, the company was well placed to meet the demands of the defence community in Europe whose NEC capability was lagging far behind the US and the UK.
The new segment, which would have sales of €1.2bn and approximately 5500 employees, would require a considerable investment from the parent to install the required simulation and advanced electronic equipment required to meet the demands of its new customer base.
The fruits of Stefan Zoller’s strategy were seen by BATTLESPACE Editor during our visit to the new Network Centric Operations Simulation (NetCOS) UK facility.
The New Facility
EADS DS’ UK NetCOS facility was unveiled in February 2006 by the Rt. Hon. Peter Hain, MP Secretary of State for Wales.
This NetCOS facility is the next link in the EADS network of facilities in Elancourt, France, Munich in Germany and now South Wales, UK. Two other facilities are planned in North America, Washington DC this year and Spain in 2008. There is also a mobile NetCOS facility used to great effect to model the Command & Control facility built by EADS for the Qatar Government.
When finished, this international network will be the world’s largest international network-centric simulation environment. Military missions, accidents, civil incidents, and natural disasters can now be simulated, tested and optimally prepared, for the UK’s armed forces and emergency services. In addition, NetCOS UK will allow battlefield commanders to evaluate risks and model potential scenarios without having to expose their troops to danger.
NetCOS also offers the tools, environment and expertise to undertake homeland security studies and support other critical government activities in this area. The new simulation suite could play a pivotal role in the successful planning and execution of events such as the 2012 Olympics in understanding large event management of security procedures and crowd control.
The launch of NetCOS in Newport demonstrates EADS’ commitment to the UK and that its transformational technology is fully in line with the findings of the UK government’s recent Defence Industrial Strategy.
FiReControl
NetCOS technology was used to great effect in the recent FiReControl contract win by the EADS Team in May 2007, to manage the English Fire Services network.
Peter Olivier, FiReControl System, Design & Integration Manager at EADS DS gave BATTLESPACE a brief on the win.
EADS Defence & Security Systems Ltd (EADS DS Ltd) has signed a contract to supply a resilient control centre system that will enable England’s Fire and Rescue Services to provide a common national response capability for the first time. The FiReControl project will create nine networked Regional Cont