UK MoD’s LOSA RED programme moves ahead
A Selex Galileo-led cross-industry team has been awarded a contract to implement the first phase of the UK Ministry of Defence's (MoD) Land Open Systems Architecture (LOSA) Research, Experimentation and Development (RED) programme.
A Selex Galileo-led cross-industry team has been awarded a contract to implement the first phase of the UK Ministry of Defence's (MoD) Land Open Systems Architecture (LOSA) Research, Experimentation and Development (RED) programme..
Under the terms of the undisclosed deal, Selex will serve as prime contractor to Team Castrum, to demonstrate the way LOSA can save or maintain available resources, such as time, money or manpower to provide operational advantage.
The demonstrations will be conducted over the first half of this month and involve testing of five packages featuring power and data interoperability and soldier/vehicle/base integration in relevant and realistic combat scenarios.
"This has provided the experimentation programme with a unique opportunity for pan-industry engagement on a scale rarely seen and we expect to demonstrate real results within the first few weeks of the programme getting underway."
Data obtained from these experiments will be integrated into subsequent phases of the programme, which is expected to serve as an open architecture for systems integration and interoperability in the land environment.
Selex Galileo Battlespace Solutions vice president Peter Martin said the team had successfully applied the openness principles, fundamental to LOSA architecture across a diverse set of industries.
"This has provided the experimentation programme with a unique opportunity for pan-industry engagement on a scale rarely seen and we expect to demonstrate real results within the first few weeks of the programme getting underway," Martin added.
Led by Selex Galileo Battlespace Solutions, the Castrum team includes Dytecna, BAE Systems, IBM, QinetiQ, Thales, Harris and General Dynamics, Rolls-Royce, MIRA and Marshall Protected Workspace among others.
The team had already participated in MoD's Generic Base Architecture 2 (GBA2) demonstration at Caerwent, Wales, in November 2011.
LOSA is an MoD's initiative aimed at ensuring integrity for army personnel to conduct peacetime training and operations through systems integration and interoperability between three basic platforms, which include soldiers, vehicles and bases.