Paul MacGregor, Roke managing director (L) and the MoD's Brig John Collyer. (Photo: Roke)
The UK MoD has awarded UK company Roke a £6.7 million ($9.3 million) contract for the supply of the ZODIAC system. It marks the start of an Alpha development phase to derisk delivery of the army’s Land ISTAR programme.
Land ISTAR will deliver an integrated and distributed system of sensors, applications and underlying system architecture that will enable the army to operate with greater precision and speed. ZODIAC will act as the 'central nervous system' for the programme.
According to Roke, it provides the systems required to ingest data from all battlefield sensors and from combined, joint, inter-agency, intra-governmental and multinational intelligence feeds.
‘It will need to fuse, analyse and distribute the resulting intelligence to battlefield users, integrating across land, sea, air, space and cyber and with allies', the document pointed out.
During the Alpha phase of ZODIAC, Roke will be responsible for capturing requirements, initial design, solution architecture, risk reduction and market assessment for further development.
The effort to develop uncrewed ground vehicles (UGVs) is heating up with research efforts and exercises improving the speed of the process and the war in Ukraine is working as a proving ground for rapid development and fielding.
The M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) launcher is in high demand with Lockheed Martin doubling speed of manufacture since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. As orders are racked up in Europe, the Indo-Pacific region is seeing the increasing presence of the system.
The company's Riddler uncrewed ground vehicle (UGV) is designed to be small and light to allow easy deployment and the ability to access smaller areas such as bus or train aisles.
The Spanish Government has outlined plans to purchase communications and cybersecurity capabilities but most notably amphibious combat vehicles, self-propelled howitzers (SPHs), bridge-laying vehicles and an effort to replace its tanks from 2040.
Germany is Europe’s leading country for tank manufacture and until this month was committed to the Franco-German Main Ground Combat System (MGCS) which included tanks and other vehicles. Earlier this month, Germany and other European countries set up the Main ARmoured Tank of Europe (MARTE) project casting a shadow over the MGCS.
Denmark signed the Technical Arrangement for the multinational Common Armoured Vehicle System (CAVS) in April this year. The order means the country will receive its first vehicle this year.
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