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Ireland Leverages SitaWare for Joint Operations

Common Situational Awareness and Operational Pictures

The Defence Forces of Ireland (DFI) are leveraging their SitaWare software – including Headquarters and Frontline – to facilitate joint operations, developer Systematic announced on 27 June.

Deployment of SitaWare helped create a common situational awareness (SA) platform for the DFI, which created challenges for commanding units at a distance, as well as the timely gathering and dissemination of intelligence to support responsive actions. “The value of a single SA platform across the entire force greatly outweighs any disadvantages of the small tools that are bespoke to an actual domain. Look at the overall effect that can be delivered, because being on the same SA platform, and on the same network, means you can seamlessly share the information to the users who need it,” commented Cdr Brian Mathews of the Irish Naval Service (INS).

This was one of the rare occasions on which technology changed the INS concept of operations, he said, as the force seamlessly moved to a network-enabled approach to operations through the deployment of SitaWare Headquarters. This implementation was eased by the Irish Army’s use of the system, with the INS seeking simple cooperation with the land forces.

Deployment of SitaWare by the INS has ranged from helicopter patrols, through OPVs, down to RHIBs used for boarding. Blue force tracking and sharing SA in real time or near-real time also helps to facilitate interoperability. “There was some concern from the ships’ captains about the operational commander ashore seeing all the activity on the ship, all the time […] But because the operational commander can see the picture, the ships’ captains don’t have to keep reverting back for approval […] As a result, we’ve been able to push the decision-making from the centre, to the edge. A ship’s captain can now say ‘I intend doing this today’ based on the sea conditions or the activity in their area, with the operations centre monitoring and providing support as necessary,” Mathews added.

Track correlation has also helped to fuse data from various inputs into a single layer, removing potential duplication of targets within the situational picture. The combination of multiple feeds into a single view allows for smarter operational planning and deployment of assets, resulting in the more efficient use of resources. Smart filtering also allows the anonymisation of sensor feeds, meaning that previously classified SA pictures could be shared with civilian agencies without compromising the status or location of INS vessels. “What I can then do is bring different feeds from multiple locations together into one layer, correlate them, and export it so it’s all anonymised,” Mathews explained.

DFI continues to increase its fielding of SitaWare to support information and intelligence dissemination to a wide variety of stakeholders. The organisation announced last September it would be fitting its fleet of four Pilatus PC-12NG aircraft with SitaWare Headquarters and Frontline. Three of the aircraft are configured as SPECTRE platforms, providing an advanced ISTAR picture to DFI. A fourth aircraft is configured as a utility platform. SitaWare is also set to be integrated on the two Airbus C295 Persuader aircraft due to enter service with the Irish Air Corps in March 2023, with a primary focus on maritime patrol duties.

According to Capt Paul Shorte of the CIS Branch of DFI’s DCOS Operations Division, “When we went through the design phase for the C295, we went through Airbus’ FITS workstation system to see what can we actually get out of the tactical system on board the aircraft. On our current fleet of CN235 aircraft, no flight information was shared until after the aircraft had landed. That means it could be 10-11 hours before the information gathered would be available to other users in the organisation. We needed to maximise the effect and the capability that’s generated from this aircraft when they’re in the sky, because once they land that information is too old.”

The platform will also use sensors that can collect signals for ADS-B aircraft identification and automatic identification system (AIS) for ships, as well as primary radars that can identify ships and aircraft not transmitting on a recognised transponder channel. These can then be blended into a common operating picture, with track correlation and analysis for distribution to other stakeholders to identify objects of interest. Combining these new sensor feeds will create a relatively crowded SA picture, and the ability to intelligently filter these for distribution and dissemination to military and civilian customers through the new smart filtering solution will also be beneficial, Mathews said.

The INS has used SitaWare to enable commanders to operate with greater autonomy, while continuing to share a situation awareness pictures with operations centres and other partners. (Irish Naval Service)

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Publish date

06/28/2022

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