Soldiers Modernize Beneath Northern Lights

Signal, Feb 2004 by Baddeley, Adam

Firm anticipates next-generation needs of military.

The Swedish military is preparing the way for fielding its own soldier modernization program by 2010 with field trials beginning this year. In support of the effort, one company is developing its own soldier ensemble Io meet Swedish requirements and to compete in the international market at both the system-ofsystems and subsystems levels.

Sweden pursued its own path in defense procurement and development throughout the Cold War, keeping pace with the latest defense technology in military and industrial terms while remaining strictly nonaligned. Industrial consolidation in Sweden with the acquisition of Celsius by Saab, Linkoping, Sweden, was the catalyst for development of the Saab Warrior soldier ensemble.

The country recently conducted a land components combat-equipped soldier study called MARKUS. Keeping that study in mind, Saab is developing a design to meet the military's requirements. According to Per Hoving, program manager for Saab Warrior at the firm, this provides a unified capability under one roof that could furnish both the architecture and a complete suite of subsystems necessary for soldier modernization. Work on the project began in 2000.

Hoving explains that a system-of-systems approach is being adopted that will function independently of whatever national or proprietary systems are integrated at the subsystems level, such as night vision systems, navigation systems, radio frequency communications, and command and control (C^sup 2^) infrastructure. This core architecture will tie the components together by defining how information is exchanged.

He contrasts this approach with traditional design concepts where components are hardwired together at a lower level. "The difference in the system-of-systems level is that we have gone a few steps up the architecture ladder and have standardized how any subsystem communicates with the core, and through the core to communicate to any other suitable system." Whether that information is transported with or without wires is not important to this core architecture, he explains. This is achieved by fitting core architecture interface modules to subsystem devices, which will then function as the "mailboxes" for the information being transmitted.

Saab is in the process of implementing individual soldier prototypes of the core architecture for demonstration in early 2004. These demonstrations will enable the system to be used by two or more soldiers. Demonstrating the architecture to the military customer also will require applications, and Saab is now considering which applications to include in the prototype, with C^sup 2^ being an obvious choice. "A customer from the defense community wants to see something that is more closely related to what the soldier system is supposed to do," Hoving notes.

Saab will reap a number of benefits from investing in such a project, Hoving points out. "Typically, in the defense business, you have to have a request from a procurement agency before you act. We believe that by entering voluntarily into soldier modernization program development, we would perform better in future competitions. We would have much more freedom of thought in developing our concept so we could be an intelligent and enlightened party when entering into discussions related to different programs in Sweden and elsewhere," he states.

"On a systems level, we have not started an international marketing effort. We are focusing on the domestic market as the first priority. But of course we have a perspective," Hoving adds. he categorizes the soldier modernization program market in different ways. One market segment includes those countries with large, national programs like France, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States, where Saab would compete against domestic and other international sources to supply subsystems. Another segment comprises the majority of customers who want to buy products off the shelf. In addition, although the military customer is the first priority, Saab also sees potential to offer this architecture and related subsystems as a solution for emergency services.

"The majority of countries will be open to Saab Warrior and systems coming out of other projects such as Land Warrior. We will be able to compete at a systems level in countries that do not have a national program," Hoving relates. "The same is true of Sweden. It is wrong to believe that we can win everything everywhere-quite the contrary. But through our architecture, we will be able to provide the customer with the possibility to include, in the package for MARKUS, systems that do not originate in Saab.

"We began with a wide and open concept that we believe will be able to house the MARKUS requirements without having to start over on the design level. We already try to mirror the developing requirements from the MARKUS study group. We are catering to that. So far, we have been successful in doing so, and we are confident of doing that when the requirement is finalized," he adds.