DSEi 2011: SAFIR looks ahead towards CJEF

Cassidian has revealed details on how it intends to build on the first Anglo-French command and control (C2) exercise conducted in June this year.

Speaking to Shephard at the DSEi exhibition in London on 13 September, Cassidian officials described the inaugural Support the Anglo-French Interoperability and Readiness (SAFIR) exercise, which culminated in Exercise Flandres in Mailly-Le-Camp in France.

'This was the first joint exercise for C2 operations,' Afzal Ali, Cassidian's SAFIR project manager announced, while outlining the culmination of four years' work. It is understood that DSTL and DGA will conduct another exercise in 2013 before the Combined Joint Expeditionary Force becomes operational the following year.

According to Ali, June's exercise involved a 'synthetic wrap' of simulation technology designed to mimic Tiger attack helicopters, a 'generic' Thales UAV thought to resemble the UK's Watchkeeper, and the Talarion UAV. Other sensors which were simulated included GMTI radar.

'This reduced costs of training but used a variety of C2 networks to deliver,' Ali explained. Networks included the UK's ComBAT C2 system and France's Scipio system.

Ali went on to describe how the exercise replicated what systems would soon be available to UK and French forces further down the line. The exercise itself comprised 1,500 warfighters.

Looking to the future, Ali said there was potential to simulate Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft as well as C2 fits for the General Dynamics SV vehicle, Talarion sensor suites and additional radars.

'It will include different TTPs, doctrines, platforms and sensor capabilities,' he continued.

He described the possibility of a joint exercise being conducted on two separate training areas in the UK and France, interconnected with C2 networks and simulation of additional assets.