Page 30 - Australian Defence Magazine Dec21-Jan22

30 DEFENCE BUSINESS BMS
DECEMBER 2021-JANUARY 2022 | WWW.AUSTRALIANDEFENCE.COM.AU
RIGHT: The ELSA BMS is intended to enhance the ADF’s digital command, control and communications systems.
BELOW: Prior to joining ELSA in 2019 Paul McLachlan had been leading Army’s digital transformation within the ADF as head of Land Systems in CASG
Meanwhile development of Version 9.1 was continuing in conjunction with the Commonwealth, “and I’m very confident it’s the best version of a digital BMS I’ve seen,” McLachlan commented.
“It’s using our new high-powered E-CIX modular open architecture software which enables integration of multiple sensors, AI and data fusion capabilities that augment the user’s situational awareness and ability to respond quickly and effectively.
“It’s much faster, far more secure, more efficient, and better tailored to Army requirements in terms of support for planning”.
“ALTHOUGH PAYMENTS TO ELSA HAD BEEN WITHHELD IN THE PREVIOUS 12 MONTHS BECAUSE CONTRACTUAL ACQUISITION MILESTONES HAD NOT BEEN ACHIEVED, NONE WERE SECURITY-RELATED”
Yet to be disclosed are Defence’s intentions regarding Version 9.1 – whether it will be deployed if and when it re- ceives accreditation, or whether the interim BMS capability currently provided by Danish software company Systematic will be retained until a decision on Tranche 3 is eventu- ally made and implemented. A Request for Proposal for the tranche is anticipated in early 2022.
“I can’t tell you what Army is going to do. All I know is that we still have a contract with Defence to provide Ver- sion 9.1; from our perspective there’s not a lot of work still to done on it, and we’re working on that at the moment,” McLachlan commented.
“What we really need to see regarding Tranche 3 is a
more detailed concept for what they’re after and how they want to buy it.
“What we don’t want to see is a whole lot of technical specifications because that constrains you, it doesn’t en- able. I would really like to see the concept of how they’re going to fight in the electromagnetic spectrum because that helps us design our product to help them deliver outcomes.
“We and all our competitors have a wealth of technical information that would be much better used in trying to get us the capability edge we want as fast as we need it.”
SYSTEM COMPLEXITY
Prior to joining ELSA in 2019 McLachlan had been lead- ing Army’s digital transformation within the ADF for eight years, as head of Land Systems in CASG and as Command- er 1st Division.
“Modern command and control is getting infinitely more complex and there are a lot of people who don’t have experi- ence with the complexities who are leaning towards what they call the simplified system. In my view, you can’t impose a simplified system on a complex situation,” he told ADM.
“You’ve got a lot of people who are more interested in the administration and architecture of the system and we’re los- ing touch with the reason why we had a battle management system in the first place, which is to make informed deci- sions and generate more appropriate actions faster.
“The early approach to a digital C4I system was all about improving situational awareness, then about planning orders to take advantage of this. The next generation of BMS and the one which is going to give forces who develop it a capa- bility advantage will include weapon and sensor integration.
“Down at battlegroup level (a battalion with all-arms at- tachments) operational outcomes can be greatly improved by a capacity to not only understand and issue directions but also to hand off targets to troops or to individual plat- form levels that are given to you by someone else, and at the moment we can’t do that.
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