Extends Situational Awareness and Enables Rapid Mission Planning

The evolution of Systematic’s mounted C2 capability continues with the launch of SitaWare Frontline 3.0, which builds on an operationally proven solution and furthers the commander’s ability to dominate the battlespace, the company announced on 4 February.

“SitaWare Frontline 3.0 has been developed to meet the demands of the contemporary operating environment,” notes Jesper Annexgaard, Product Manager for SitaWare Frontline, “Commanders must be prepared for a multitude of complex missions. As well as addressing peer and near-peer adversaries, counter-insurgency operations are ongoing and militaries are increasingly being called upon to assist civil agencies.”

The new system introduces a range of enhancements over the in-service iteration of Frontline, with features designed to improve situational awareness, “The new mapping system, comprehensive force tracking, and geospatial tools deliver a rich picture of the human and physical terrain,” explains Annexgaard. A new self-contained map engine supports multiple map types in 2D and 3D format. The terrain analysis tools include the ability to display area-of-sight and line-of-sight, among other functions.

Enabling commanders to rapidly plan and conduct missions has also been a primary concern, Annexgaard says, “We recognise that in a conflict with a peer or near-peer, shortening the OODA loop will give commanders an operational advantage and enable them to get inside their opponent’s decision-making cycle […] As such, we have optimised the user experience, with a clear and easy-to-use interface. The integrated chat feature, for example, enables commanders to maintain situational awareness via the map while at the same time communicating across the battlespace, sharing messages, command layers, images, and more.”

Plans and orders can be composed directly on the electronic map and include sketches and text; these can be shared via tactical radio networks – both IP and non-IP. A new waypoint-based route navigation and planning feature has also been introduced.

SitaWare Frontline 3.0 uses Systematic’s tried-and-tested SitaWare Tactical Communications (STC) software protocols, which optimise management of data and enable large volumes to be transmitted over limited bandwidth and in challenging conditions. The system integrates seamlessly with SitaWare Headquarters and SitaWare Edge, giving top-to-bottom C2 and situational awareness across the battlespace, “Mission data can be shared between echelons, ensuring that all levels of command have the same operational picture, which goes some way to lifting the ‘fog of war’.”

As with the other members of the SitaWare suite, Frontline 3.0 continues the company’s design philosophy of having an open architecture and the availability of a software development kit that enables third-party applications to be built and integrated, empowering customers to drive the development of their mounted C2 capability. The standards-based design also permits interoperation with non-SitaWare users; the software is able to share key information – such as positional data – with other systems.

Further features in SitaWare Frontline 3.0 include a responsive display that adapts to screen size and orientation, ‘light’ and ‘dark’ modes to meet tactical requirements, and symbology alignment with the other members of the SitaWare suite. “There is a common look-and-feel across the across the SitaWare suite, this simplifies user transition between the different systems and can serve to reduce training time and costs.”