NEWS FROM CWID
08 May 09. This year’s Coalition Warrior Interoperability Demonstration (CWID) UK took place between 8 and 26 June at the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory’s (Dstl) Porton Down site. It was the 15th consecutive year of participation for the UK in CWID, and the eighth that it has been hosted by Dstl. CWID is a partnership between industry and the Ministry of Defence (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. This year’s event aims 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 analysing and identifying the issues surrounding the delivery of NEC. In particular, CWID UK is focused on examining the gaps that have emerged from current operations in order to signpost requirements for the capabilities MOD will require to meet the 2012 NEC milestone – ‘Inter-connection’. For military command and control, access to the right information at the right time is vital for operational success. CWID assists MOD in identifying current technological solutions to capability gaps, reducing risks through trialling new technology and concepts, and identifies opportunities presented through innovative solutions. The event is realistic, relevant and coherent with MOD strategy and works in support of current and future operations. 26 trials will be demonstrating at this year’s event, with a focus that covers areas such as command and control, situational awareness, intelligence management and tasking and interoperability with Coalition forces. Amongst those giving demonstrations were EDS, Fujitsu, Thales and QinetiQ.
15 Jun 09. CWID 09: Fujitsu Participation. BATTLESPACE visited CWID on Thursday to see the latest developments in technologies for the Afghan war. We will be covering this in detail in our Expeditionary Warfare feature for the DSEI issue. At CWID 2009, Fujitsu mounted demonstrations in the UK, NATO and US environments – the only organisation to cover all three domains. The themes for these trials were information management, including Joint Command and Control, and Air Task Management.
The Joint Command and Control demonstration de-risks the second stage of
the UK MOD’s Interoperability Project, currently under contract to
Fujitsu, together with potential enhancements to Fujitsu’s openJOP
product to meet the emerging needs of the Permanent Joint Headquarters
(PJHQ), consistent with the Network Centric Warfare strategy.
The Interoperability Project provides a suite of Shared Situational
Awareness and Joint Task Management applications, integrated to present
a common view of battlespace information, and incorporates a
collaborative working tool to enable improved decision making across an
in-theatre command structure. A fundamental aspect of the Project is the
establishment of an Enterprise Service Bus for information management
and exchange. This will also enable information to be presented as a
coherent and consistent picture of the operational situation that can
then be exploited to meet any individual needs. Within an overall
Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) for future Command and Control
capabilities, this will establish a fundamental plank in the Network
Enabled Capability strategy of the UK MOD.
The Information Management and Exploitation trial extends the
functionality of Fujitsu’s openJOP product to show how it could be used
beyond the needs of the Interoperability Project. This responds to
PJHQ’s requirement for a dynamically reconfigurable information delivery
platform to match the constant changing demands of today’s battlefield.
At CWID 09, openJOP is hosted a