Largest ever industry team comes together to improve forward operating bases

From the 21 - 24 February, Finmeccanica Battlespace Solutions is pleased to participate in the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD)'s Forward Operating Base Exercise (FOBEX) in Caerwent, Wales. FOBEX is an MoD initiative to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of Forward Operating Bases (FOBs) bringing together a range of industrial partners with innovative offerings. The focus is on applying an integrated system approach to the design of bases, with the architecture remaining open, yet secure, so that evolving needs can be quickly addressed.

Finmeccanica Battlespace Solutions will lead team Castrum, an industry partnership that includes several Finmeccanica operating companies as well as other key industry players and a number of Small and Medium sized Enterprises (SMEs). Castrum has been brought together to provide a complete solutions view to address this issue for the MoD, and to enhance the incorporation of innovations from SME companies. Using its modular, scalable and integrated method of base design, the team will demonstrate that a fully operational level 2 FOB can be rapidly constructed by 30 to 40 troops. The integrated FOB approach will provide a more efficient FOB that could significantly reduce the logistics footprint of troops on operations. For example, an integrated approach to base power management would reduce the amount of fuel required for operations, reducing the number of supply convoys needed to keep the base operational.

At the exercise, a number of SELEX Galileo's latest situational awareness and protection systems will be incorporated into the Castrum solution. These will include the Company's Road Marshall integrated situational awareness system for armoured vehicles, the components of which are all battle proven on current operations, and the new Observer 100 system, a trailer-borne surveillance system that can be deployed in under 10 minutes and can operate independently for up to 30 days without refuelling.

The core of the Castrum solution is SELEX Galileo's Vantage mission systems integration software. This organizes the inputs from the Castrum team's various systems into an integrated, simplified output for operators. The modular and open nature of the Vantage software has allowed it to be quickly updated to incorporate assets from the team Castrum partners.

Source: Selex Galileo

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