Upgraded sensor system to facilitate better sharing of tactical information

The DE&S Artillery Systems team in Land Equipment say they are rolling out an updated, sensor-to-shooter digital system that is able to transfer strategic operational commands between forces in seconds.

“The Fire Control Battlefield Information System Application (FC BISA) is a Command, Control, Communications, Computation and Intelligence system (C4I) that generates firing data for artillery and mortars. It operates on the Bowman ComBAT Infrastructure and Platform (BCIP) system and is supported by CGI IT and Business Consulting UK ltd.”

The team is working with the Artillery Systems Co-operation Activities (ASCA) network – a community of allied forces – to build new software into FC BISA that will allow the British Army to share information with other forces and allow them to identify and fire at hostile targets between them.

Michael Constable, FC BISA project manager, said:

“This is a digital system which transfers information from the soldier or sensor to gather intelligence on the whereabouts of a target to a weapon system which the Royal Artillery or infantry will use to destroy said target.The data transfer is almost instant but there are built-in safety features which means that before any shots are fired, the information is checked and verified by a safety officer first. Safety is key throughout this process. The introduction of the ASCA network will allow full digital fires from sensor to shooter across national digital boundaries quickly and safely with no language barrier.”

Since re-joining the programme and becoming full members in 2018, the UK fielded an ASCA terminal for the field Army in December 2019 and are now in the process of developing the next version, say DE&S.