24 Jun 02. Today Logica and the U.K. MoD signed a contract, worth approximately £18.3m, to develop and support a new highly advanced fire planning and control application for the British Army. This will be the first Battlefield Information System Application (BISA) to run on the Armed Forces BOWMAN tactical communications infrastructure (See BATTLESPACE UPDATE Vol.4 ISSUE 22, May 30th 2002).
The Fire Control BISA will provide the Royal Artillery and the Infantry with a world-beating fire control capability to enable the most effective management of current and emerging weapons and ammunition. Logica will also develop a separate stand-alone fire control application running on a ruggedised laptop computer for
deployment with the Royal Artillery and mobile forces such as the Infantry, Paratroop Regiments and Royal Marine Forces.
In securing this contract, Logica is well positioned to win further battlefield applications contracts and establish itself as a key player in this field.
Commenting on the award, Kevin Gorman, director, Logica space and defence division said, “This is a significant win for Logica and builds on our world class reputation in the supply of mission critical software. We believe that our flexible approach and commitment to delivering effective information systems to the battlespace will provide the UK Armed Forces a real step change in fire control capability”.
Comment: This is good news for Logica and strengthens the company’s already substantial defence at a time when its telecoms business is in the doldrums. It must have been galling for AMS to lose this contract when it was the incumbent supplier for BATES, which although long in development was functioning well as an analogue system for the Army. The Logica contract will now streamline the Fire Control operations of the Army through the BOWMAN system creating a digital system for control of operations from mortars to long-range 155mm AS90 platforms. MBM Technology is believed to be a major contender to supply the rugged computers.