Developments in the threat landscape and the nature of conflict call for significant changes in the way that missions are conducted. As the number of actors in the battlespace increases, the digital transformation and advanced connectivity solutions have become an integral part of military operations. Today, Thales is introducing the Combat Digital Platform, a cybersecure platform designed to share, analyse and exploit the vast quantities of available data to guarantee information superiority for the forces deployed in the theatre of operations. Thales’s expertise in mobile connectivity solutions is at the heart of this system. Based on a combat cloud architecture, the Combat Digital Platform provides advanced connectivity services using any combination of software-defined radios, satcoms and LTE mobile networks.
“With the Combat Digital Platform, Thales enables land forces to exploit all tactical data in a unified, cybersecure system in order to understand, decide and act faster than the adversary. The soldier remains at the heart of the decision-making process,” Gérard Herby, Vice President, Protection Systems, Thales said.
The system also offers important benefits for joint and allied operations. The Combat Digital Platform is designed to support the conventional tactical command or battle management systems operated by joint forces and alliance partners and to share data securely in compliance with key NATO standards. Information can be assimilated and exploited quickly and securely to accelerate mission preparation and simplify engagements by multiple stakeholders. The ability to share reliable, actionable information across every level of the command chain significantly enhances the interoperability of the forces in the field.
Much more than a command system, the Combat Digital Platform uses artificial intelligence to take collaborative engagements by land forces to a new level. Deployed at every level in the force, from the command centre to vehicles on the front line, the system shares information between sensors and weapon systems continuously and flexibly under the supervision of human operators. Real-time cooperation between the sensors deployed by land vehicles, drones and dismounted infantry significantly improves situational awareness in the battlefield thanks to automated data fusion, processing and analytics.
