The UK’s ongoing overhaul of its military communications, and command and control capabilities, has taken an important step forward.
On 14th October, QinetiQ was awarded a contract by the United Kingdom’s Ministry of Defence (MOD) to support the Land Environment Tactical Communications and Information Systems (LETACCIS) programme. According to reports, the company will provide the MOD with engineering and programme expertise to support LETACCIS.
LETACCIS defined
LETACCIS is an overarching effort encompassing several programmes to enhance the British Army’s connectivity. These include the Bowman Combat Infrastructure and Platform-5.6/5.7 (BCIP 5.6/5.7) initiative, Trinity, the Joint Common Remote Viewing Terminal (JCRVT), Dismounted Soldier Awareness (DSA), Falcon and Niobe. Trinity provides a deployable wide area network to replace the British Army’s Falcon operational/tactical level trunk communications architecture and is being delivered by BAE Systems. Niobe delivers a multi-platform common, mission-configurable communications information system. L3Harris is delivering the JCRVT which is a modular remote viewing system receiving and transmitting real time video. DSA will provide dismounted troops with improved voice and data communications services at company level. This capability is being provided through the acquisition of the Android Tactical Assault Kit (ATAK). LETACCIS also covered the now-defunct Project Morpheus initiative. Morpheus was intended to deliver an open architecture tactical communications system to replace BCIP 5.6.
A spokesperson for QinetiQ told Armada that the company is delivering “deep engineering and programme skills and experience to several areas of this large programme” as a “Tactical Systems (TACSYS) resource partner.” QinetiQ is providing these services to the TACSYS Service Executive. This latter body sits within Defence Digital which is one part of the UK’s Strategic Command. In its own words, the Defence Digital organisation “is responsible for making sure that effective digital and information technology is put into the hands of the military.” Regarding LETACCIS, Defence Digital is “tasked with delivering the equipment and logistic defence lines of development for the projects within the … programme.” The spokesperson emphasised that QinetiQ is not the only company involved with LETACCIS: “We are delivering into only some parts of the programme. Many other providers and suppliers are contributing.” Options exist to extend QinetiQ’s three-year LETACCIS contract for a further two years.
The shopping list
This latest development regarding LETACCIS is welcome. There is an overriding need to advance the connectivity and networking of the UK’s armed forces. This is further underscored by the country’s embrace of the Multi-Domain Operations (MDO) mindset. The UK’s own interpretation of MDO is known as Multi-Domain Integration (MDI). MDO stresses the intra- and interforce connectivity of all military assets at all levels of war to perform synchronous operations aided by faster and better-quality decision-making than one’s adversary. The MDI concept extends this approach to deepen connectivity with other parts of government, the public and private sectors, and civil society. Despite LETACCIS, other initiatives remain outstanding, not least of which is the Morpheus requirement which must be urgently addressed.
by Dr. Thomas Withington
