News Report
As announced in a recent press release, Finmeccanica's SELEX Sistemi Integrati has been awarded new contracts worth a total of EUR 120 million.
The first contract, signed with the Italian Ministry of Defence, concerns the protection system upgrade for Italian Forward Operating Bases (FOB) and Fire Support Bases (FSB) operating in Afghanistan. SELEX Sistemi Integrati, as head of a temporary grouping of enterprises with two other Finmeccanica companies, SELEX Galileo and OTO Melara, will be responsible for the construction, installation and integration of the entire system.
The second contract, also signed with the Italian Ministry of Defence, relates to the upgrading of
various operational functions of the command and control system (SIACCON2) developed by SELEX Sistemi Integrati for the Italian Army and the connective infrastructure currently used by Italy’s Armed Forces in Afghanistan. This contract was also awarded to SELEX Sistemi Integrati as prime contractor of a temporary grouping of enterprises with other Finmeccanica companies, including SELEX Elsag and Telespazio.
SELEX Sistemi Integrati has signed further contracts with the Italian Ministry of Defence to maintain the Italian Army Information Management System (SIGE) and to develop new system services and functions for all of Italy’s Armed Forces.
Finally, the company has signed a contract with NATO agency NAHEMA both to develop the new mission planning system for the A129 combat helicopter, and to update the technology used in the mission planning system of the NH90 tactical transport helicopter. Both aircraft are used by the Italian Army.
The Technology
SELEX Sistemi Integrati has developed in the recent years a family of products and solutions for providing surveillance and protection of critical sites, including military bases, vital national infrastructures, power plants and industrial sites. These solutions exploit state-of-the-art middleware technologies, such as the Data Distrubution Service, for supporting systems integration, network-centric interoperability, plug-and-play system configuration, and operational flexibility. Under the terms of the contract, the surveillance integrated systems that will be provided to Italian Army include the man-portable LYRA10 radar, designed and manufactured by the same company, and several electro-optical sensors by SELEX Galileo. The supply also includes the creation of command and surveillance posts for the systems management, surveillance systems for airport areas, camera integrated systems for the internal surveillance of entrances, robotic systems in “combat” version manufactured by OTO Melara for the protection of the bases, acoustic systems by SELEX Galileo able to locate the fire sources. SELEX Sistemi Integrati will also be responsible for the transport, installation in site and the integration and management of all the systems installed.
SELEX Sistemi Integrati is also Prime Contractor and Design Authority for the Italian Army's Automated Command and Control System, named SIACCON (Sistema Automatizzato di Commando e Controllo). The systems was introduced into the Italian Army in 2000 for supporting Division and Brigade level Command and Control operations, and was then upgraded by introduction of advanced interoperability mechanisms, additional Functional Areas, and for extending its functionalities at the lower echelons.
The system is now scalable both in hardware and software terms, enabling its use at all levels from Division to Platoon and squad level. The core system remains the same at all levels, but higher headquarters have a more comprehensive range of operational functions. A typical Command Post (CP) configuration consists of a fusion centre and one or more CP cells. The fusion centre contains database servers to store all the operational data, a family of servers to provide generic services such as Mail, Web, DHCP and DNS services, and telecommunication and encryption devices. The system uses standard common data models for database replication, enabling interoperability with other systems. SIACCON provides a common operational picture to all users, with live locational information provided via GPS. The system provides functional support across the full range of staff branches and also includes specific functionality to support Operations Other Than War (OOTW). General purpose capabilities include: digital mapping, vector and raster mapping, navigational functions, terrain analysis, and 3-D viewformal message.
The SIACCON system constitutes the Command and Control backbone of the Italian Army's Forza NEC network-enabled architecture for digitized units. SELEX Sistemi Integrati is the main supplier and system integrator, with other Finmeccanica companies and other indepentent firms providing specialized equipments and sub-systems.
Reference: Finmeccanica (1), SELEX Sistemi Integrati (2), Jane's (3)
No comments:
Post a Comment