01 Jul 21. WFEL has delivered – several months earlier than scheduled – the first of several new MGB Medium Girder Bridge systems to the British Army’s Royal Engineers, under the contract awarded in October 2020.
The new MGB bridging sets can be configured in several different ways to provide flexibility to the Commander on the ground and this first bridge configuration will allow the Royal Engineers to build a 31 metre Double Storey and a five-bay Single Storey Medium Girder Bridge, to be used to cross both wet and dry gaps in a variety of operational and emergency disaster relief scenarios.
This is the first of the 17 sets of Medium Girder Bridges to be supplied by WFEL, following a review of the UK MoD’s modular gap crossing capabilities (MGCC), to draw together existing in-service capabilities into a single coherent capability.
Mike Batty, Team Leader for the Operational Infrastructure Team for Defence, Equipment and Support, the procurement arm of the MoD, said: “The MGCC bridges provide a bedrock of essential support to troops on both Military and Disaster Relief operations. Receiving them ahead of schedule gives us confidence that our delivery partners understand how vital this equipment is to our Armed Forces.”
The British Army has been a user of Medium Girder Bridges since the early 1980s and the new bridging systems to be supplied by WFEL will provide new, lightweight, medium gap-crossing capability to Very High Readiness forces and form a significant element of the manoeuvre support capability for the British Army’s STRIKE Brigade.
The MGB bridging systems were chosen by the Royal Engineers for their versatility and deployability to meet the challenges of the future integrated operating concept. UK Minister for Defence Procurement, Jeremy Quin MP, said: “These bridges provide our Armed Forces with vital capabilities in both Military and Disaster Relief operations.”
The complete MGB contract will be fulfilled by Dec 2025.
With over 500 systems already supplied to militaries around the world, the MGB is a modular military bridging system, providing interoperability with any other MGB of any age and is already adopted by many NATO members. MGBs were deployed jointly by U.S. Marines and U.S. Navy Seabees in Norway during Exercise Trident Juncture 2018, in one of the largest NATO exercises of recent times.
29 Jun 21. BAE Systems has won a contract from the UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) to provide a new data management system to enhance the Royal Navy’s ship availability. The five-year contract includes UK naval ships such as the Queen Elizabeth Class aircraft carriers, Type 45 destroyers, and the new Type 26 frigates.
Known as ‘Support Information Knowledge Management (S-IKM)’, the new solution will enable management of huge data for fleet on-shore support and maintenance securely and efficiently.
It uses data analytics to inform through-life support and improve ship availability for the Royal Navy.
According to the company, the support and maintenance services are also provided for technical manuals, schematics and part numbers.
The data sharing across the support enterprise, comprising the Royal Navy, the MOD and other industrial suppliers, allows in providing better support to ships.
The S-IKM tool will also enhance the operational support delivered to service crew at sea.
The MOD can retain ownership and control of the data.
BAE Systems Maritime Services managing director David Mitchard said: “This contract is a critical part of supporting the Royal Navy’s digital transformation.
“By delivering sophisticated data analytics and through-life support tools, we can significantly improve ship availability.
“Combining our digital expertise with a deep understanding of the Royal Navy and a genuine commitment to innovate, I’m confident we can make a real difference to warship support.”
To develop S-IKM tool, BAE Systems collaborated with industry experts, identified and integrated specialist technologies from other expert suppliers.
These technologies include Eurostep’s ShareAspace product lifecycle management (PLM) collaboration software, TIBCO’s data management & analytics platform, as well as Genpact’s Cora SeQuence business process management software.
BAE said that the S-IKM contract will be delivered as part of the UK MOD’s £1bn Common Support Model (CSM).
The CSM framework integrates existing separate support agreements for individual ship types into a single model. (Source: naval-technology.com)
25 Jun 21. Indra develops new platform to predict logistical needs of armed forces. The use of the new technology will improve operability in various scenarios, including international peacekeeping missions.
Indra has developed a new platform that will help in predictive maintenance of military equipment to improve operational effectiveness.
The intelligent sustainment 4.0 platform is based on the use of blockchain technology, equipment sensing and cloud platforms.
It helps the armed forces gain a better understanding related to the status and availability of each system and platform, and ensure their proper maintenance to prevent larger breakdowns.
The advanced sustainment 4.0 concept is based on the SIGLE logistics management system that is used by the Spanish Army.
According to the company, the new technology will help the armed forces to predict maintenance requirements, as well as determine associated material demand and costs.
Such predictive maintenance is expected to extend the longevity of military equipment and maintain proper logistical flows.
The implementation of the sustainment technology will also lead to the addition of sensors to each system such as vehicles and aircraft.
This will enable the collection of performance data that can be transmitted to the sustainment platform in real-time leveraging hyperconnectivity between systems.
In a statement, Indra said: “Indra’s sustainment 4.0 platform is designed to rely strictly on private cloud infrastructure under the army’s own control to securely store the huge volumes of data it collects and provide a seamless view of the status and needs of each army unit.
“Powerful analytical software and artificial intelligence algorithms process and study them to present commanders with the relevant information they need for decision making.”
The predictive maintenance technologies are expected to streamline deployment and operability in various scenarios including international peacekeeping missions.
Indra is a global technology and consulting company serving transport and defence industry verticals. Earlier this year, Indra secured a contract to develop armoured vehicle training centre for Spanish Army.
In the 2020 financial year, the company generated total revenue of $3.64bn (€3.043bn). (Source: army-technology.com)